An inspiring tale of a young man’s efforts to save his family, and himself.
In Stone’s compelling follow-up to Mason’s Daughter (2012), a brave young man flees home and embarks on a journey to adulthood.
Nate Wallace has had to grow up too fast. Forced to watch his father, Roy, drink away their savings and stumble home drunk and violent, he’s the protector of not only his younger sisters but his mother, too. Nate’s anger at Roy escalates one night and comes to a fatal conclusion moments after Roy blurts out that Nate is not actually his son. After attacking Roy, Nate runs back home and learns that Roy has died; Nate must escape to South Carolina before the law catches up with him. While Nate’s temper lands him in trouble soon after fleeing home, his quick thinking and sharp reflexes land him a job that seems too good to be true. Told to merely survey the loading and unloading of goods at a warehouse, Nate is shocked when this mindless task leads to yet another violent encounter—another death by his own hand. On the run once more, Nate finds himself among shady characters as he learns to gamble and deceive to get by. But his luck changes when he finds shelter and kindness with the Cobb family, who not only take care of Nate but also teach him to read and write. As Nate tries to track down his family, his journey away and finally back to them helps him become a more civilized and savvy man who will not only save his family but meet the woman with whom he can start his own family. In the grand tradition of bildungsromans, this coming-of-age tale is captivating. Nate is a classic underdog whose naïveté and determination make him an endearing and relatable hero. His story is not only one of endurance and triumph but growth and development. Told in clear, accessible language, this is a story both adults and teenagers will appreciate for its enjoyable characters and exciting plot.
An inspiring tale of a young man’s efforts to save his family, and himself.Pub Date: Oct. 19, 2014
ISBN: 978-1938749247
Page Count: 340
Publisher: Violet Crown Publishers
Review Posted Online: April 24, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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