Stewart O'Nan Books in Order

Emily Maxwell and her “Humpty Dumpty Club” of friends support each other through the challenges of aging in Pittsburgh. When their leader is injured, the women rally together, proving that community and friendship are the only ways to weather the years.

In a working-class Rhode Island town, a teenage girl is murdered by her boyfriend’s other lover. Narrated by the killer’s younger sister, this is a tragic, compassionate examination of obsession, poverty, and the bonds between mothers and daughters.

In this prequel to *Wish You Were Here*, we meet Henry Maxwell in 1998, a seventy-five-year-old soldier and engineer looking back on his life. He tries to be a good husband and father while quietly questioning if he has done enough for those he loves.

In 1945 Jerusalem, a Holocaust survivor working as a taxi driver gets pulled into the violent underground resistance against British rule. A tense, noir-like thriller exploring identity, morality, and the cost of fighting for a new homeland.

A biographical novel following the final three years of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s life in Hollywood. Struggling with his health, finances, and a hospitalized wife, he finds a last chance at love and artistic redemption among the stars.

Facing bankruptcy and a failing marriage, a couple travels to Niagara Falls to gamble their last savings. It is a bittersweet, intimate look at long-term love and the desperate measures two people will take to save their life together.

A tense short story about two boys who plan to dress as monsters for Halloween. Their harmless fun takes a dark turn after a backyard accident involving a gun changes their friendship forever.

Co-written with Stephen King. Dean Evers, a widower, begins seeing people from his past in the stands of televised baseball games. As the innings progress, the faces become more disturbing, forcing him to confront a history he tried to bury.

Now an elderly widow in Pittsburgh, Emily Maxwell learns to navigate life without her husband or grown children nearby. When her sister-in-law suffers a health scare, Emily discovers a surprising reservoir of strength and independence in her quiet daily routine.

When a popular teenager disappears from her small Ohio town, her family and community are left in a suspended state of grief. The novel traces the ripple effects of the mystery, focusing on the painful process of living with the unknown.

A Red Lobster manager leads his crew through one final, snowy shift before the restaurant closes for good. A masterpiece of the mundane that celebrates the work ethic and dignity found in even the most ordinary jobs.

When her husband is imprisoned for a botched robbery and murder, Patty Dickerson is left to raise their child alone. Spanning twenty-eight years, this is a gritty, emotional story of loyalty, endurance, and the hard reality of waiting.

Co-written with Stephen King. Two lifelong fans chronicle the Boston Red Sox’s historic 2004 season through a series of emails and diary entries. It captures the heartbreak, the obsession, and the ultimate joy of the team finally breaking the eighty-six-year curse.

On Halloween night, a group of teenagers haunts the suburbs where they died in a car crash exactly one year earlier. A spooky, inventive ghost story that explores the grief of the friends and parents they left behind.

A year after the death of the family patriarch, the Maxwells gather for one last week at their summer cottage on Lake Chautauqua. Old tensions flare and secrets surface as the widow, Emily, and her adult children confront their shared past and uncertain future.

Set in the African American neighborhood of East Liberty in Pittsburgh, this novel weaves together the stories of residents facing personal crises and community change. A rich, multi-voice portrait of a single week in a place fighting to hold onto its soul.

A harrowing non-fiction account of the 1944 Hartford circus fire that killed 167 people. O'Nan reconstructs the disaster and its aftermath with meticulous detail, honoring the victims and the community that was forever changed.

In post-Civil War Wisconsin, a diphtheria epidemic strikes a small town, forcing the sheriff—who is also the pastor and undertaker—to make impossible choices. A terrifying, gothic intensity drives this story of duty, madness, and faith.

During World War II, a family on Long Island unravels while their eldest son goes missing in action. As the parents grapple with infidelity and fear, the domestic front becomes just as treacherous as the battlefield overseas.

Marjorie Standiford, waiting on death row, dictates the story of her drug-fueled crime spree to Stephen King. A dark, satirical ride through fast-food culture and the American obsession with violence and celebrity.

Larry Markham, a Vietnam vet working a delivery job, is stalked by a dangerous man from his PTSD support group. As his own memories of the war intrude on the present, Larry must protect his fragmented family from a threat that feels all too familiar.

In a small Pennsylvania town in the 1970s, a teenager watches his parents’ marriage dissolve while his former babysitter’s life spirals into tragedy. A stark, haunting look at the loss of innocence and the dark undercurrents of suburban life.

O'Nan’s prize-winning debut collection of short stories. These narratives introduce his signature themes of blue-collar struggle, disconnected families, and the hard-won resilience of people living on the margins.