A Stand-Alone Sequel

Jeff Wallach’s novel is about two brothers on a search for their biological father after the unexpected death of their globe-trotting and colorful mother invites such an investigation.  They find answers on an Irish golf course and in a familiar Long Island neighborhood.  The writing is knowing and engaging, wise about its cultural orientations, and driven to discoveries both reassuring and life-enhancing.

— Michael Curtis, Fiction Editor Emeritus, The Atlantic

  “You’ll enjoy the funny, vivid writing and fast-paced plot in Jeff Wallach’s beguiling new novel, Mr. Wizard.”

— Curt Sampson, best-selling author of a shelf of golf-themed books, from The Eternal Summer to Hogan to his latest, Roaring Back, the Fall and Rise of Tiger Woods

“Mr. Wizard, by Jeff Wallach, is an emotional tour-de-force that explores one of life’s biggest questions: what makes us who we are? This hilarious and witty novel has more twists and turns than the back country Irish roads where some of the action takes place. And it promises one of the most incredible surprise endings…ever! Do yourself a favor and buy this book.”

— Robert K. Brigham, Professor of History, Vassar College

  “Jeff Wallach takes us on a genetic treasure hunt in which the characters learn much more about themselves than any DNA test could ever reveal. A hilarious and heartwarming novel about what it means to be brothers.” 

— Dan Pope, author of “Housebreaking” 

 “Jeff Wallach is a prodigiously gifted writer—insightful, funny, and always surprising. Mr. Wizard twists and turns like a double helix. When you finish, you’ll want to go back to the very first page and experience it all over again, just to see how Wallach pulled it off.”

—Terri Cheney, author of New York Times bestseller, Manic: A Memoir   

    “ With Mr. Wizard, Jeff Wallach joins the likes of Michael Murphy, John Updike, and P.G. Wodehouse in writing wonderfully about golf in his fiction. It's a great read for anyone who loves golf and a good mystery. Family relationships swerve and dip like a double-breaking downhill putt but in the end everything drops into place with that pleasing sound of a golf ball falling into the cup. Not since Golf in the Kingdom has a fiction writer captured the mystical, bonding qualities of our game— and the mysteries of the human heart.  Wallach’s book brings to mind a rollicking round played with quirky, hilarious companions who love the game, and each other.”

— Robert Trent Jones, Jr., author, musician, poet, and renowned architect of more than 275 golf courses in more than 40 countries on six continents

“In the months after the death of the eccentric single mother who raised them, a pair of middle-aged New York-based brothers set out to discover the truth of their paternity.  Cracking apart the fable their mother concocted to hold their curiosity at bay, they find themselves heading for the west coast of Ireland. In Mr. Wizard, Jeff Wallach draws on his decades as a travel journalist to add authenticity to his tale of the brothers’ Celtic quest. Mining gems from the rich comic ore of his own New York boyhood, fashioning a narrative loaded with wisecracks, Wallach has crafted a novel that lets mystery embrace tenderness with its touching climax.”

— Larry Colton has explored American cultural change in a series of best-selling non-fiction books, including Goat Brothers, Counting Coup and Southern League.