Bellport author and retired Lynbrook teacher drops second novel: Bonac

Weissmann is a 40-year resident of Bellport Village and a retired English teacher from Lynbrook High School, where he taught for 28 years.

He’s also a U.S. Marine and served as a ranger at Watch Hill, Fire Island. Weissmann wrote for the New York Times Sunday sections through the 1980s and 90s. This is is second novel.

The first was In Secret Waters.

“The impetus for writing [Bonac] is my concern for the environment of the East End as it faces the exploitation of over development, mainly for the benefit of the super wealthy,” he said. “Gardiner’s Island is especially vulnerable as it is now in a family trust controlled by a Gardiner heir who is now in her mid-80’s. Everyone hopes that it will wind up being a nature preserve, but there are no guarantees of that.”

The story

Here is the back-cover blurb, published in its entirety:

Cal Hazen left Bonac country on the eastern end of Long Island twenty years ago to serve in the Navy and eventually settle down in Virginia. But Bonac never left him. He grew up in the marshes, creeks, and bays just as his ancestors did for almost 200 years. They followed the water to make a living from commercial fishing. A life that he chose to leave behind.

So, when he returns for this father’s funeral, he isn’t shocked that the old ways have faded into the past. He is shocked by the way the land, water, and wildlife that were once sacred to him are being threatened by development for the pleasure of the ultra-rich.

He is determined to prevent it. But some of the people he is up against may stop at nothing.

— Bonac, a novel by Richard Weissman