The Invisible Worm That Flies in the Night

A stranger on the run. A fatherless boy. A cop who won't look away.

In a comfortable steel town in western Pennsylvania in the early 1960s, a stranger arrives looking for a second chance. Tony Pagano is a man on the run, determined to leave behind a past he barely understands and cannot control. Taken in by Father Vinton, an earnest young priest who believes in redemption, Pagano finds uneasy refuge on the margins of a tight-knit working-class community. At the same time, eleven-year-old Francis Mozek is searching for his missing father, and finds in Pagano something he has been missing—understanding, protection, even affection. What begins as trust becomes something else: a slow entanglement of need, denial, and misjudgment.

Content note: Disturbing subject matter, handled seriously. For mature readers.