Dear Mike is “boomer fiction.” A book about growing up in the sixties and finding your way in the seventies.

Dear Mike is a coming of age novel about a tight-knit group of friends growing up in the late sixties in the factory town of New Barry, Connecticut. In this fictional memoir, Michael Warren examines the power of new friendship and the paths of self-discovery inside the micro-society of Catholic high school. As a growing cast of friends converges in the Warren family basement, Mike and his younger brother Dave navigate the push and pull between home and the outside world, as well as the “intricate and often turbulent weather system” that is the marriage of John and Rose Warren.

Against the backdrop of the politics and music of the times, Dear Mike follows Mike, Dave and their friends through college and sometimes haphazard efforts to launch adulthood. At the same time, memories of a horrific decades-old double murder that forever changed life in New Barry haunt Mike’s newspaperman father. When the eighties bring major life transitions, joy and tragedy, Dear Mike reminds us that even as they weave in and out of our lives, it’s often the first people we love who teach us and sustain us.

Perfect for readers who appreciate thoughtful, character-driven fiction, this novel lingers long after the final page, inviting reflection on the moments that quietly define our lives.