The story delves into the contrasting motivations of Francie and Colt Hart as they become enamored with an old farmhouse in Pennsylvania. Colt envisions it as a symbol of his success, while Francie seeks inspiration to revive her writing career and mend their struggling marriage. As they uncover the tragic past of the house and its former occupants, tensions rise, revealing deeper issues in their relationship and the impact of the house on their lives.
After leaving gang life following his brother's death, Rosario Gomez strives to build a better future for himself and his family. Focused on completing night school and advancing at his supermarket job, he aims to be a responsible father. However, the reappearance of an old friend from the barrio forces him to confront the harsh realities of his violent past, challenging his efforts to escape and protect his new life. The story delves into themes of redemption, resilience, and the struggle to break free from one's history.
Walter Davis faces the challenges of homelessness after his mother's battle with cancer leaves him destitute. Despite being young, handsome, and intelligent, he struggles to maintain a relationship with the girl of his dreams while hiding his living situation. His efforts to impress her lead to complications, especially when a lie results in her distancing herself from him. The story explores themes of resilience, ingenuity, and the determination to overcome adversity as Walter seeks to reclaim his life and find success.
The story follows Haley Bombauer, known as Flash Jackson, as she embraces the freedom of her seventeenth summer. Eager to explore the hills and forests on her cherished horse, she dreams of adventures that take her beyond her small town and the constraints of her overprotective mother. This journey of self-discovery promises to challenge her boundaries and ignite her spirit of independence.
"With his widely acclaimed debut, 28-year-old William Kowalski emerged as one of the most exciting and distinctive new American writers in years. In his hew book, Kowalski once again proves himself an extraordinarily gifted writer as he follows his hero Billy Mann on his search for the mother who deserted him as a baby. Now 20 years old, Billy travels atop his beloved motorcycle to the last known address he has for her ot a side street named Santa Fe, New Mexico. It is a journey that will teach him many things about family, friends, love and death. Filled with wondrous imagery and lyricism, Somewhere South of Here has a lightness of touch that belies how very much it has to say about life s greatest themes of all. "
"Eddie's Bastard" is William Amos Mann IV, known as Billy -- the son of a heroic pilot killed in Vietnam and an unknown woman. The last in a line of proud, individualistic Irish-American men, Billy is discovered in a basket at the door of the dilapidated mansion where his bitter, hard-drinking grandfather, Thomas Mann, has exiled himself. Astonished and moved by the arrival of his unexpected progeny, Thomas sets out to raise the boy himself -- on a diet of love, fried baloney, and the fascinating lore of their shared heritage. Listening to his sets out to capture the stories on paper. He is a Mann, Grandpa reminds him daily, and thus destined for greatness. Through the tales of his ancestors, his own experiences, and the unforgettable characters who enhance and enliven his adolescence, Billy learns of bravery and cowardice, of life and death, of the heart's capacity for love and for unremitting hatred, eventually grasping the meaning of family and history and their power to shape destiny. Steeped in imagery and threaded with lyricism, Eddie's Bastard is a novel of discovery, of a young man's emergence into the world, and the endless possibilities it offers.
