Dance at Bougival

About the Book

In a story set in the social turmoil of the Vietnam war years, Justin Blake and Emily Bennet find their love mirrored in Renoir’s Dance at Bougival, only to have the young academic forced aside for a family favorite by Emily’s ambitious mother. Shattered, Justin joins his faculty colleague, Lindsay Daley, on a London sabbatical, where Emily soon arrives to inform him she is pregnant and get his agreement for an adoption. They go separate ways in life and marriage, holding in their hearts the moment in time Renoir inspired, until years later an unforeseen encounter provides long-sought closure to their memory.

About the Author

After a national career as a development officer for universities and academic medical centers, William Fissinger turned to writing fiction and exploring life in the “other America.” He and his wife, Margaret, joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps to live in the inner city, where he worked with the homeless and she with troubled Native American populations. He has also served as a Court-appointed guardian for neglected and abused children, tutored jail inmates, and chaired a community mental health board. This intersection of campus and street experience provides the background for this first novel, Dance at Bougival. The Fissingers live in Hudson, Ohio.