There’s a term used to describe prose that, for some, might first appear to be a level of criticism. It is not for me. Far from it. It is praise. The word is “quiet.” I became familiar with Gary D. Wilson’s work when I read his award-winning collection of short stories, For Those Who Favor Fire. The characters, carefully rendered, are taken directly from the honest and meticulous examination of humanity’s complications. To deliver stories that resonate with a shared humanity, an author must allow the weight of a story, the weight of the world, to settle in, to seep through the skin to places of the heart. That takes time and quietude. Wilson does this magnificently in his collection of stories. And he does it again in his novel The Narrow Window. Although, I would suggest, the novel is not as quiet as his short stories, as it employs a level of suspense, but the characters are drawn with the same pen — with empathy, heartbreak, belonging, and quietness of spirit. The events in The Narrow Window are both disturbing and impactful, set in the backdrop of the turbulent 1960s and an unsettled Africa, with the evolution of the characters coming as it does for all of us — through pain and suffering, and the slow, steady beat of heartbreak. The story is about two young Americans wrestling with their beliefs, their motivations, and their loyalties after an unspeakable act of personal violence upends their lives while teaching abroad, all as an enormous shift has forever knocked the American cultural landscape off balance. The story is a page-turner, and one that engages the reader to consider what we all are willing to embrace and what we are willing to let go. It’s a story that carries with it mystery and a visceral unsettledness, challenging you to consider what truly matters in a life, and what ultimately lifts us and scars us. And Wilson does all of this in a methodical and unputdownable narrative. A kind of quiet prose, yes, but also magnificently gripping. ~ David W. Berner - Author , FULL REVIEW - https://medium.com/the-writer-shed/the-narrow-window-7cdf722f0d55

In what is a mighty fine read, from start to finish, and chock full of fascinatingly characters, themselves, each and every one, a fully rounded, fully functional being for us to lock in on, The Narrow Window (A Novel) by author Gary D. Wilson is one of those books they term as a literal page turner... A dutiful tale of one’s very own identity, who we are, who we wish to become, and who we eventually become, along with the meaning of belonging (mentally and physically), it’s about everything we leave behind along with the accumulated baggage we take with us, of course. ~ Exclusive Magazine, FULL REVIEW - https://annecarlini.com/ex_books.php?id=631

A story that is compelling, sad, hopeful and a government whose King and Prince carry out their own needs and agendas and will do anything to rid themselves of those who stand in their way... Gary D. Wilson takes all of the characters on an intense trip to understand the meaning of belonging, identity, friendship and embracing the differences in people and their beliefs. ~ Fran Lewis

The shocking rape of a Peace Corps volunteer shatters the precarious balance of American idealism and hypocrisy in l969 Swaziland, a newly independent country dealing with its own equally fraught post-colonial issues. Full of fascinating characters in exquisitely described exotic locations, where everyone has their own agenda, the new modernity mixes with native customs and spirits, and expats only think they know what’s really going on. Above all, Wilson’s heartbreaking novel exposes the irony of our country’s continuing desire to benevolently remake the world in one part of the globe while waging war in another and what happens to those trying to make it all work. A tale of identity and the meaning of belonging. The scars we leave behind and the scars we take with us. ~ Rita Dragonette, author of The Fourteenth of September

There is the poetry of quiet to Gary Wilson's storytelling, always there beneath the surface of narration. Quiet masking horror, pain, some manner of fury, longing, the mystery of being. Here, in The Narrow Window, that still solitude of a story's telling seems more looming shadow than mask. Quiet frames the most jarring din of a collision in this intersection. This is still the contemporary term for the realm in which the bearers of cultures meet and, if not outright clash, then attempt to take from the other, yes? Quiet before the intersection of characters arriving from disparate realities to a shared land, surrounded by still another country. Humans bearing intents and notions in purposed conflict between themselves. All mutually seeking to take some unspeakable advantage to get somewhere, something, before they indeed collide and all that is left for them is the quiet lingering afterwards. ~ Bayo Ojikutu, author of 47th Street Black and Free Burning

Wilson's writing is thoughtful, patient, and above all, illuminating. Setting and character converge in highly concentrated light, but it isn't a light by which Wilson forces us to see. Rather, Wilson invites us to consider, in brand new light, the ways in which humans deal with guilt, integrity, fear, duty. The gaps between these elements widen as we read each sentence and fill themselves in with increasing tension. The Narrow Window is a moving work. ~ Paul Luikarft, author of The Museum of Heartache