The Pat Conroy books yet to come

But concerning Conroy's unpublished work, greatest interest is generated by a Vietnam-era novel called "The Storms of Aquarius," that follows a group of friends from college in Charleston to adulthood, according to Cassandra Conroy.

The book draws on the idyllic time during the early 1970s when Conroy taught at Beaufort High School and made a group of friends including former Paideia teacher Bernie Schein.

All the characters were to eventually serve as teachers, but “being Pat he has gotten 200 pages into it, and he has just got them graduating from college,” said Cassandra Conroy. “He hasn’t gotten them teaching yet.”

She said the book would be about a group of men who remain friends throughout their lives, like the male version of her novel “The Same Sweet Girls.”

When Conroy was diagnosed with cancer he went back to work on the book, with the hopes that he could finish it, she said. “I was really, really liking this book,” she said. “I was so hurt for him when he got sick and tried to work on it a couple of times, but you could barely read what he was writing.”

Conroy died within weeks of diagnosis.

It’s not clear whether the parts of the book that Conroy completed can stand on their own, she said. “I held on to the hope that we might find more. We found a lot of notes — where he was going with this. We have that, but I’m not sure exactly what can be done with it.”

On the other hand, her husband had finished writing another book, a young adult novel called “The Cave of the Midnight Owl,” set in Highlands, N.C. It’s a Harry Potter-esque fantasy that includes time-travel, talking animals and magic, she said. It was originally planned as a children’s book, with illustrations by his daughter, Melissa Conroy, but grew to 400 pages. (Conroy’s books tended to exceed the usual size limits).

That one will be published some time in the future, but may become more than one book, said Cassandra Conroy.

Finally there is a story that Conroy talked about for many years that he called his “Atlanta novel,” but his widow said it isn’t likely to materialize. “We don’t have anything on that” except a handful of notes, she said.

There are some Atlantans who may be glad the book never materializes, she said. “For this, people are breathing sighs of relief,” because being portrayed by her husband can be an unnerving experience, she said.