Gene Lees, Song Lake Summer (Libros Libertad). Lees, the prolific biographer of musicians and proprietor of the invaluable Jazzletter, turns novelist with fiction about a little-remembered piece of history in the northeastern US. It is the tale of a deep and unlikely friendship that develops between two men, a love story with a surprising twist and a lyrical imagining of a time and way of life we’ll never see again. Full disclosure: I wrote a blurb for the dust jacket (“Lees has the ability, reminiscent of Chekhov, to explore feelings and inner conflicts that his characters cannot define in themselves”). And I’d do it again.