ELI THE GOOD
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Silas House’s first novel in five years is also his best.
In this timely and powerful book, the best-selling novelist revisits a summer of tumult and truth for a young narrator and his war-torn family.
Bicentennial fireworks burn the sky. Bob Seger growls from a transistor radio. And down by the river, girls line up on lawn chairs in pursuit of the perfect tan. Yet for ten-year-old Eli Book, the summer of 1976 is the one that threatens to tear his family apart. There is his distant, beautiful mother, Loretta; his traumatized Vietnam vet dad, Stanton; his wild and beloved sister Josie; his aunt Nell, a former war protester who understands him; and his tough yet troubled best friend, Edie, the only person with whom he can be himself. As tempers flare and his father’s nightmares rage, Eli watches from the sidelines, but soon even he cannot escape the current of conflict and commits an act of betrayal for which he cannot forgive himself.
A tender and profound look at the complexities of childhood, at the problems and power of being different, and the realities of war — this is a quintessentially American novel filled with music, nostalgic detail, a deep respect for nature, and a powerful sense of place.
- Winner of the first annual Storylines Prize
- Format: Hardcover, 304 pages
- Price: $16.99
- ISBN: 978-0-7636-4341-6 (0-7636-4341-6)
- From Candlewick Books www.candlewick.com
