'A funny, bewitching, observant book.'-Oregonian

'An engrossing family drama ... Stein [writes] with honesty and compassion.'-Publishers Weekly

'Hits all the frets of a powerful story: sharp-witted dialogue, vivid characters, insight into medical challenges and prose that snaps like well-placed plucks of guitar strings.... I hold up my lighter and turn it full-flame for Stein's latest work. Encore!'-Seattle Times

Evan had a hit single. But that was 10 years ago. Thirty-one now, he's drifting, playing in a local band and teaching middle-aged men to coax music from an electric guitar.

Beset at a young age with a life-threatening form of epilepsy, he's kept his condition a secret, even from his band mates. Only his family knows, and they don't know why he had the accident that caused it. Nor has he revealed his deepest secret: at seventeen, Evan got his high-school sweetheart pregnant. Then her conservative parents whisked her out of Seattle and out of Evan's life.

Now, 14 years later, he experiences unplanned parenthood when he undertakes to raise the resentful teenage son he's never known. Evan has a second chance at fatherhood but possesses none of the qualities of a traditional father. He has to learn, just as Dean, his son, has to learn to love him. Neither is easy.

Offbeat and disarming, How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets portrays a contemporary American family with unfailing honesty. Maybe being a father means being there for your child no matter how belatedly you may arrive.