SAINTS OF AUGUSTINE

Closeted journalist Sam and stoner basketballer Charlie were best friends since the age of nine, but just months before Charlie’s mom died of leukemia, the two parted ways and haven’t spoken since. Neither knows why one dropped the other; they simply stopped talking. Just over a year later, the two reunite at night in a park near their neighborhood. Sam’s just botched his first date with a guy named Justin, and Charlie’s licking the wounds of a pot-smoking habit gone to the dogs. It’s obvious their lives are parallel: Each has the parent the other is missing, and each one needs something the other has to give. Their relationship unfolds in the empty spaces left behind in the other’s memory, and it’s the weight of their troubles that brings them back together. Adult author Ryan’s tightly wrought YA debut moves fast, and each boy’s voice is ragged, distinct and desperate enough to wrangle the hearts of most teen readers, both guys and girls. Nothing wraps up neatly, but both boys discover that broaching the impasse they never claimed may be easier than solving the more complicated problems of their everyday life. A broody story of platonic friendship lost and found. (Fiction. YA)