Author Phil Harrison delves into masculinity and identity in his new second novel

Phil Harrison’s second novel Silverback demonstrates the gossamer fine line between violence and fragility. Starting with a courtroom as surgeon James Fechner sits as part of a jury in a murder case — that of Robert Rusting on trial for his father’s murder — this is a tale of being drawn to something up until that moment not experienced, and the potential change that comes when an unlikely friendship forms. Fechner inserts himself into Rusting’s world. It’s a compulsion; he cannot prevent it.