In this loose sequel to Arroyo, Jacobs’ bestselling debut novel, two classmates at a Southern California prep school lean on each other to survive, as their historic campus metamorphoses from Lord-of-the-Flies all-boys to dizzying coed. Welding the two closer: stormy home lives in the shadows of “Great Men” fathers unable to be caring parents. When Luke Burnett, a hard-charging journalist with an imploding career, and Denny Drummond, a genius software-engineer poised to revolutionize computing, reconnect twenty years later, neither is who they figured they’d be, imposters to their own unique potentials.

Then the ground collapses beneath them. After Denny is given months to live, Luke tries expunging his own pent-up demons by aiding his dying friend until their rupture from 1980—over a wild gunshot in the night—threatens to shred both of them. In the poignant climax, fate rolls the dice, offering the estranged pair a chance to get what their psyches need, and it’s far bigger than teenage expectations of them changing the world.

Later Days should appeal to readers fascinated by rollercoaster friendships, the currency of forgiveness, familial warfare, and near-death experience as palliatives for human suffering. Those interested in the secret histories of Caltech, the Pasadena area, gender as culture shock, and the darkly entertaining late-1970s will find something to love in these pages.