The Californians

Castleberry’s (Nine Shiny Objects) latest novel shows that the artist’s mission is to reveal truths. Focusing on members of a pair of interconnected families from the 1920s through the present, his book weaves an intricate tale of artistic ambition. The novel begins with Klaus von Stiegl, a German immigrant who falls in love with movies. He dreams of and actualizes a successful role as a film director before the advent of talkies, but his own stubbornness derails his once-promising career. Interwoven into the narrative is his granddaughter Di, a complex woman whose skills and artistic objectives propel her to prominence in the 1980s and beyond. Her photorealistic style heartbreakingly portrays AIDS patients during the unsympathetic Reagan era. Fast forward to the 2020s, and enter Harlan, the grandson of Klaus’s business partner and a one-time leading actor. He’s a listless but ambitious inheritor of the impetus to do something meaningful, so he seeks a better life amongst the chaos of the modern world.