Bookshelf

Alumni and faculty members who would like to have their books considered for this listing should contact Stacey Himmelberger, editor of Hamilton magazine. This list, which dates back to 2018, is updated periodically with books appearing alphabetically on the date of entry.

Birth Pangs by Randolph Splitter ’68.

December 5, 2025

Tags Alumni Book

(Wordwooze Publishing, 2025).

Peter Kovacs, an adjunct professor at an urban community college, explores the concept of “home” with his students while, outside the classroom, he manages relationships with a strange neighbor, his ex-wife, a newly adopted cat, and a fellow professor. When a newborn baby is found abandoned in a trash can in an alley near the college, he finds himself compelled to find out what happened. Meanwhile, in a parallel narrative that eventually intersects with Peter’s, a young Japanese boy drawn to photography strives to find meaning to his own life.

Splitter pulls the reader into the lives of two individuals from very different backgrounds while exploring themes of abandonment and the complexities of family — how do we define “home” — all sparked by the discovery of a vulnerable life in an unexpected place.