Panorama

Summary

A debut novel that spins towards a single moment, a plane crash on New Year’s Day, and then away from it, as the families of the victims navigate intertwined paths in the wake of the tragedy

Richard MacMurray, a cable news talking head, is paid handsomely to pontificate on the issues of the moment. On New Year’s Day he is scheduled to appear on a prominent Sunday-morning talk show, but as he awaits the broadcast, the program is interrupted by news of a jet airline crash in Dallas killing everyone on board. Richard becomes aware that his sister Mary Beth was aboard the flight, leaving her six-year-old son Gabriel behind. Richard, his only living relative, must take Gabriel in.

Panorama dramatizes the ever-widening impact of a single moment over the span of one day—on the victims and their loved ones, but also the plane’s mechanic, the airport janitor, and casual observers such as the teenager in a dingy motel who captures the plane’s final moments on video. Within this novel’s expansive scope, Kistulentz constructs an intimate, page-turning portrait of human loss.