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The Boy He Left Behind: A Man's Search for His Lost Father
by Mark Matousek"""I was four years old when my father came back to kidnap me,"" begins this gripping memoir about Matousek's search for James Matousek, the drifter father he never knew. Described by the New York Times as ""part reminiscence, part detective story, part spiritual musing,"" this memoir is more than the story of one man's search for his father; it is also a look at the meaning of life and how fathers contribute to that meaning. Growing up in a family of troubled women (Matousek's sister committed suicide when the author was 29), he describes the turmoil of growing up ""fatherless in America"" - an experience shared by millions of children in what sociologists have called the Age of the Absent Father - and the difficult, ultimately successful, struggle to figure out what being a man really means in an age of shifting definitions, evolving sexuality, and ""breaking out the man box"" of stereotyping and patriarchy. With the tension of a mystery story, the climax occurs when Matousek meets a man he believes to be his father. But is he? And does Matousek, who has reconciled with his mother as she lay dying, really care? These are just two questions leading to this memoir's surprising conclusion. "
A Boy I Once Knew: What a Teacher Learned from Her Student
by Elizabeth StoneIn 1995 Elizabeth Stone received an unexpected gift - a carton of notebooks, the journals of a former high-school student named Vincent. Dying of AIDS at the age of forty, Vincent willed his diaries to his former ninth-grade teacher, asking her to turn his life into a book. Stone weaves her own life story through excerpts from Vincent's diaries. As Vincent comes to terms with the deaths of friends and with his own approaching end, Stone is helped to make her own peace with loss and death as a part of life.
A Boy I Once Knew: What a Teacher Learned from her Student
by Elizabeth StoneA “touching and heartfelt” true story about loss, memory, and a remarkable bond between an English teacher and one of her former students (Booklist). One morning, a box was delivered to Elizabeth Stone’s door. It held ten years of personal diaries and a letter that began: Dear Elizabeth, You must be wondering why I left you my diaries in my will. After all, we have not seen each other in over twenty years . . . What followed was an extraordinary year in Elizabeth’s life as she read Vincent’s diaries and began to learn about the high school student she had taught in Brooklyn twenty-five years before. A Boy I Once Knew is the story of the man Vincent had become and one woman’s journey to understanding him more deeply—and along the way, understanding herself. With his diaries, Vincent becomes a constant presence in Elizabeth’s household. She follows his daily life in San Francisco and his travels abroad. She watches him deal with the deaths of friends in the gay community during the AIDS epidemic. She judges him. She gets angry with him. She develops affection and compassion for him. In some ways, she brings him back to life. And in doing so, she becomes the student, and Vincent the teacher. He forces her to examine her life as well as his, challenges her feelings and fears about death—and ultimately, proves to her that relationships between two people can deepen even after one of them is gone. “A meditation on memory and how a story can be a form of immortality.” —Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club
Boy in a China Shop: Life, Clay and Everything
by Keith Brymer Jones'During downtime on the pottery throwdown Keith made my hair curl with some of his tales - he's a great raconteur and recounts his story in this book as he does in real life - with joy, charm & mischief.' - Sara CoxBallet dancer. Front man in an almost famous band. Judge on The Great Pottery Throwdown. How did all that happen?By accident mostly. But I always say we make our own luck. What if an art teacher hadn't given me a lump of clay? What if the band had been really successful? What if I hadn't taken a photograph of a bowl to the buyer at Heals in London? What if she'd hated it? Or hadn't seen it... What if I hadn't agreed to dress up as Adele to make a crazy YouTube video? Every chapter of my book is based around an object (usually a pot) that's been significant in my life. It's just at trigger to let me go off in a lot of different directions and tell a few stories. A lot of stories. Dyslexia. The art teacher who changed my life. My Mother. My Father. A life-changing job interview with a man who lay under his car throughout. That video.Sifting through half-forgotten memories, trying to pick out the golden nuggets from the stuff that is definitely dross has been a curious, and at times hilarious, sometimes sad, but definitely enlightening process. So here it is - my pottery life with some very loud music and some pretty good dancing. And a lot of throwing, fettling and firing. Oh ...and a good dose of anxiety.
Boy in a China Shop: Life, Clay and Everything
by Keith Brymer Jones'During downtime on the pottery throwdown Keith made my hair curl with some of his tales - he's a great raconteur and recounts his story in this book as he does in real life - with joy, charm & mischief.' - Sara CoxBallet dancer. Front man in an almost famous band. Judge on The Great Pottery Throwdown. How did all that happen?By accident mostly. But I always say we make our own luck. What if an art teacher hadn't given me a lump of clay? What if the band had been really successful? What if I hadn't taken a photograph of a bowl to the buyer at Heals in London? What if she'd hated it? Or hadn't seen it... What if I hadn't agreed to dress up as Adele to make a crazy YouTube video? Every chapter of my book is based around an object (usually a pot) that's been significant in my life. It's just at trigger to let me go off in a lot of different directions and tell a few stories. A lot of stories. Dyslexia. The art teacher who changed my life. My Mother. My Father. A life-changing job interview with a man who lay under his car throughout. That video.Sifting through half-forgotten memories, trying to pick out the golden nuggets from the stuff that is definitely dross has been a curious, and at times hilarious, sometimes sad, but definitely enlightening process. So here it is - my pottery life with some very loud music and some pretty good dancing. And a lot of throwing, fettling and firing. Oh ...and a good dose of anxiety.
Boy in a China Shop: Life, Clay and Everything
by Keith Brymer JonesThe star presenter and judge of Channel 4's The Great Pottery Throw Down looks back on his life and career - and the passion for ceramics that started it all.Keith Brymer Jones is the star presenter and judge of Channel 4's The Great Pottery Throw Down famous for his emotional responses to the heartfelt and personal pieces made by contestants on the show. He is also the ultimate professional craftsman who's done the hard yards to get where he is today, working his way up from being a skivvy in an industrial pottery to running his own hugely successful international ceramics business. Here, in his first ever memoir, Keith tells the story of his life and inspiring rise to success through the objects and images that have been meaningful to him every step of the way, as he recounts key moments and events as well as the people and places that have shaped him. From his childhood and early devotion to dance to discovering clay at the age of eleven, to his tough apprenticeship at Harefield Pottery and struggles to establish his own business, this memoir goes beyond the TV show to offer us a rare insight into Keith's own philosophy and outlook on life.(P)2022 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
The Boy in Number Four
by Kara Kootstra“For everyone who loves hockey - young or old, player or spectator - I hope this book inspires you to simply pick up a stick, get together with some friends, and just have some fun playing the best game on earth.” —Hockey legend, Bobby Orr from the afterword of The Boy in Number Four Bobby Orr played in the NHL with the Boston Bruins for ten seasons leading them to two Stanley Cup victories. He also played with the Chicago Black Hawks for two more— all the while wearing jersey number 4. In the Boy in Number Four, readers will get a glimpse of this hockey legend as a boy and discover the hard work, commitment, and fun it takes to make a dream into a reality. This book also includes an afterword by Bobby Orr with an inspirational message for kids today.
The Boy in the Attic: The Chilling, Real-Life Story of a Satanic Murder and the Truth that Haunts
by David MaloneIreland 1973: a very different world. But a tiny village in County Dublin was about to lose its innocence for ever. On a bright and sunny June afternoon, a seven-year-old boy was left in the care of his teenage neighbour. No one knew, or would even have dreamed of suspecting, that the teenager was a Satanist. The two went out to the fields to look for rabbits. The child was never seen alive again. For the first time, in The Boy in the Attic, David Malone reveals the exact events of that summer day: how the youngster was lured to his death, how the teenager came to delve so deeply into the occult and the nightmarish scene awaiting police when they entered the attic.But there is another disturbing question - how is it that this murder, which was easily one of the most shocking and horrific in living memory, was barely reported upon at all? Why have you never heard of the boy in the attic until now?
The Boy in the Book
by Nathan PenlingtonWhen Nathan discovered a job lot of the first 106 adventures for sale on eBay, there was never any question that he would place a bid. When the books arrived, he lost himself in the old adventures. Yet, as he flicked through the pages, there was another story being written. In the margins of each book were the scribblings of the little boy who had once owned them, a little boy by the name of Terence John Prendergast. Terence wrote jokes and hints for adventurers following the same stories as him. More troubling, among the notes were intimations of a tormented childhood: of the boys and teachers who bullied him; of the things he hated about himself and had to improve; of his thoughts of suicide and his desperate need to find friends, be liked, and find somebody - anybody - to confide in. THE BOY IN THE BOOK is Nathan's poignant recreation of the discovery of the fragments of Terence Prendergast's diary, his quest to find the lost boy, and the friendship that resulted from their first meeting. In doing so, Nathan is forced to examine his own childhood - and, as his relationship with Terence deepens, he begins to believe that the two men are not so different, and to reflect on the darkness that can exist in childhood.
The Boy in the Book
by Nathan PenlingtonWhen Nathan discovered a job lot of the first 106 adventures for sale on eBay, there was never any question that he would place a bid. When the books arrived, he lost himself in the old adventures. Yet, as he flicked through the pages, there was another story being written. In the margins of each book were the scribblings of the little boy who had once owned them, a little boy by the name of Terence John Prendergast. Terence wrote jokes and hints for adventurers following the same stories as him. More troubling, among the notes were intimations of a tormented childhood: of the boys and teachers who bullied him; of the things he hated about himself and had to improve; of his thoughts of suicide and his desperate need to find friends, be liked, and find somebody - anybody - to confide in. THE BOY IN THE BOOK is Nathan's poignant recreation of the discovery of the fragments of Terence Prendergast's diary, his quest to find the lost boy, and the friendship that resulted from their first meeting. In doing so, Nathan is forced to examine his own childhood - and, as his relationship with Terence deepens, he begins to believe that the two men are not so different, and to reflect on the darkness that can exist in childhood.
The Boy in the Burning House
by Tim Wynne-JonesTrying to solve the mystery of his father's disappearance from their rural Canadian community, fourteen-year-old Jim gets help from the disturbed Ruth Rose, who suspects her stepfather, a local pastor.
Boy in the Cupboard
by Shane DunphyPetru and Elvira Tomescu and their young son, Litovoi, are a Romanian family, desperate to start afresh in a new country. Yet their past has already caught up with them, and three-year-old Litovoi is about to pay a terrible price ...
The Boy in the Cupboard
by Shane DunphyThree heart-stopping stories of children trapped by their parents' pasts ... Craig, the little boy who can't speak English, isn't allowed to use his real name and hides food around his playschool, afraid he'll be hungry again. His parents are trying to make a fresh start, but their gangland bosses are about to catch up with the family and Craig will pay a terrible price...Edgar is a twelve-year-old boy who nobody wants, not even the staff at the residential unit where he lives. Just when it seems that there might be a way of getting through to Edgar, his mother reveals a secret that changes everything ...Vinnie is a teenage boy who knows exactly what his gangster father is capable of, of how he makes problems disappear. He also knows that he had become a very big problem for his father ...... One man's fight to give these children the future they deserve.
The Boy in the Dress: Searching for the truth behind a historical hate crime on home soil during WWII
by Jonathan ButlerOn a balmy Townsville night in 1944, a young serviceman, Warwick Meale, is found murdered. The army and police do not, or will not, conduct a proper investigation and history forgets the killer - until now. Nearly eighty years on, Warwick's descendant Jonathan Butler dusts off the case and chases the leads that were there all along.The Boy in the Dress exhumes secrets of life on the home front during World War II, where tensions between soldiers boiled over, new expressions of sexuality flourished and the threat of invasion catapulted the status quo into disarray.The truth of this family legend, and this little-known chapter in Australian military history, is more complex and engrossing than anyone could have imagined.
The Boy in the Model-T: A Journey in the Just Gone Past
by Stephen LongstreetWHEN STEPHEN LONGSTREET was twelve years old, his grandfather (an unreconstructed G.A.R. officer) and his mother (one of the prettiest women of her day) took him across the continent and back on a year-long trek in a Model-T Ford. Now, a quarter of a century later, the mature and sensitive writer looks back on that time and projects it with drama, with humor, and with love.Before little Stevie returned from the trip, he had had his thirteenth birthday; he had fallen in love with a heartless sophisticate of fourteen; he had lived among the beer barons of St. Louis, been present at a hilarious Irish wedding in Montana, fished in the bayous of the Cajun country, learned to handle and love a hunting hawk, and absorbed a great deal about the meaning of both life and death.His mother, a woman of infinite determination and femininity, and his grandfather, as articulate, tough, and soft-hearted an old codger as ever chewed on a cigar, showed the boy our country—a picture full of courage and humor, pathos and wild hilarity, and, for those old enough to remember 1919, fraught with a heart-warming nostalgia.Pen-and-ink sketches by the author, a well-known artist, supplement a narrative style already famous for its rich vividness.
The Boy in the Moon: A Father's Journey to Understand His Extraordinary Son
by Ian Brown“The truth Brown learns from his severely disabled child is a rare one: The life that seems to destroy you is the one you long to embrace.” —New York Times Book ReviewIan Brown’s son Walker is one of only about 300 people worldwide diagnosed with cardiofaciocutaneous (CFC) syndrome—an extremely rare genetic mutation that results in unusual facial appearance, the inability to speak, and a compulsion to hit himself constantly. At age thirteen, he is mentally and developmentally between one and three years old and will need constant care for the rest of his life.Brown travels the globe, meeting with genetic scientists and neurologists as well as parents, to solve the questions Walker’s doctors can’t answer. In his journey, he offers an insightful critique of society’s assumptions about the disabled, and he discovers a connected community of families living with this illness. As Brown gradually lets go of his self-blame and hope for a cure, he learns to accept the Walker he loves, just as he is.Honest, intelligent, and deeply moving, The Boy in the Moon explores the value of a single human life.“Candid . . . heartwrenching. . . . Much more than a moving journal of life with a disabled child; it is about Brown’s quest to understand his son and his son’s condition . . . An absorbing, revealing work of startling frankness.” —Kirkus Reviews“Unforgettable . . . Crisp, observant and, occasionally, subversively funny.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer”Honest and deeply moving.” —Tucson Citizen“[A] beautiful book, heartfelt and profound, warm and wise.” —Jane Bernstein, author of Loving Rachel and Rachel in the World
A Boy In The Peninsular War – The Services, Adventures, And Experiences of Robert Blakeney, Subaltern in the 28th Regiment.: The Services, Adventures And Experiences Of Robert Blakeney, Subaltern In The 28th Regiment
by Julian Sturgis Robert BlakeneyThis ebook is purpose built and is proof-read and re-type set from the original to provide an outstanding experience of reflowing text for an ebook reader. Robert Blakeney was by modern standards a callow youth at the age of fifteen, in the standards of the time in which he lived he was a gentleman and a soldier. Blakeney was commissioned as a subaltern in the 28th Regiment, he was to see tough and trying service in the Peninsular under both Sir John Moore and the Duke of Wellington. Although the author eschews any literary pretensions, claiming that he was far too busy with his active career soldiering, the autobiography is excellently written with no little wit, aided no doubt by tight editing by Julian Sturgis. His description of the hell of Badajoz is particularly well done. Many incidents of the camp and bivouac that Blakeney recounts revolve around the characters of his soldiers, who not infrequently happen to be Irish, and the great generals that he meets in carrying out his duties; such as Sir John Moore, Lord Paget, General Graham and the Iron Duke himself. As an example of which Lord Paget is memorably recalled infusing some urgency into one of Blakeney's superiors during the retreat of 1809; 'Dragoon, what news?" "News, sir? The only news I have for you is that unless you step out like soldiers, and don't wait to pick your steps like bucks in Bond Street of a Sunday with shoes and silk stockings, damn it! you'll be all taken prisoners." "Pray, who the devil are you?" came from the cart. "I am Lord Paget," said the dragoon;' Blakeney, served during the Copenhagen expedition, the Coruña campaign including the battle, the siege of Tarifa, the battle of Barossa, the siege of Badajoz, and finally the battle of Nivelle in which he is severely wounded. A highly enjoyable and recommended read. Text taken, whole and complete, from the 1899 edition, published in London, John Murray. Original -369 pages Author - Robert Blakeney - (1789-1858) Editor - Julian Sturgis - (1848-1904) Map - Not included due to its size Linked TOC.
The Boy in the Picture: The Craigellachie Kid and the Driving of the Last Spike
by Ray ArgyleEdward Mallandaine was there! To prove it he thrust himself into the historic photograph of the "Last Spike" being driven to mark the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway. Surrounded by the railway dignitaries of the time, his young face peers out amid their frosty beards. Edward had just turned eighteen when he left his home in Victoria, British Columbia, to join the Canadian militia to fight Louis Riel in the North-West Rebellion of 1885. Hired to ride dispatches over the unfinished stretch of railway in British Columbia, he meets highway men, high officials, men of the North-West Mounted Police, and the denizens of saloons hidden away in mountain passes. He survives the lawlessness of remote towns and railway camps, rubs shoulders with Chinese labourers struggling to blast a right-of-way through the towering peaks of Eagle Pass, and makes a freezing midnight ride by railway flatcar to reach the outpost of Craigellachie just in time.
Boy in the Well: A Scottish murder mystery with a twist you won't see coming (DI Westphall 2) (DI Westphall #2)
by Douglas LindsayBook 2 in the DI Westphall series.'The Boy in the Well is a dark and satisfying mystery. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the company of DI Ben Westphall, a compelling personality . . . This one comes thoroughly recommended' James OswaldThe body of a young boy is discovered at the bottom of a well that has been sealed for two hundred years.Yet the corpse is only days old . . .Soon, similarities from an old crime emerge and DI Ben Westphall must look to the past to piece together the dark and twisted events taking place in the present.(P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
The Boy in the Woods: A True Story of Survival During the Second World War
by Maxwell SmartThe astonishing true story of a boy who survived the war by hiding in the Polish forest Maxwell Smart was eleven years old when his entire family was killed before his eyes. He might have died along with them, but his mother selflessly ordered him to save himself. Alone in the forest, he dug a hole in the ground for shelter and foraged for food in farmers’ fields. His clothes in rags and close to starvation, he repeatedly escaped death at the hands of Nazis.After months alone, Maxwell encountered a boy wandering in the forest looking for food. Janek was also alone; like Maxwell he had just become an orphan, and the two quickly became friends. They built a bunker in the ground to survive through the winter. One day, after a massacre took place nearby, the boys discovered a baby girl, still alive, lying in the arms of her dead mother. Maxwell and Janek rescued the baby, but this act came at a great cost. Max’s epic tale of heroism will inspire with its proof of the enduring human spirit. From the brutality of war emerges a man who would become a celebrated artist, offering the world, in contrast to the horrors of his suffering, beautiful works of art. The Boy in the Woods is a remarkable historical document about a time that should never be forgotten.
The Boy Kings: A Journey into the Heart of the Social Network
by Katherine LosseKate Losse was a grad school refugee when she joined Facebook as employee #51 in 2005. Hired to answer user questions such as "What is a poke?" and "Why can't I access my ex-girlfriend's profile?" her early days at the company were characterized by a sense of camaraderie, promise, and ambition: Here was a group of scrappy young upstarts on a mission to rock Silicon Valley and change the world. Over time, this sense of mission became so intense that working for Facebook felt like more than just a job; it implied a wholehearted dedication to "the cause." Employees were incentivized to live within one mile of the office, summers were spent carousing at the company pool house, and female employees were told to wear T-shirts with founder Mark Zuckerberg's profile picture on his birthday. Losse started to wonder what this new medium meant for real-life relationships: Would Facebook improve our social interactions? Or would we all just adapt our behavior to the habits and rules of these brilliant but socially awkward Internet savants who have become today's youngest power players? Increasingly skeptical, Losse graduated from customer service to the internationalization team--tasked with rolling out Facebook to the rest of the world-- finally landing a seat right outside Zuckerberg's office as his personal ghostwriter, the voice of the boy king. This book takes us for the first time into the heart of this fast-growing information empire, inviting us to high-level meetings with Zuckerberg; lifting the veil on long nights of relentless hacking and trolling; taking us behind the scenes of raucous company parties; and introducing us to the personalities, values, and secret ambitions of the floppy-haired boy wonders who are redefining the way we live, love, and work. By revealing here what's really driving both the business and the culture of the social network, Losse answers the biggest question of all: What kind of world is Facebook trying to build, and is it the world we want to live in? *** "Logging on to Facebook that first day, in retrospect, was the second, and to date the last, time that any technology has captured my imagination. The first was when Apple advertised the first laptop, the PowerBook, in the 1990s--with the words, 'What's on your PowerBook?' "'World domination,' my teenaged self- answered instinctively. That's what these devices were made for, I thought: so small and yet so powerful, so capable of linking quickly to and between everything else in the world. From the laptop, I could write and distribute information faster than ever before. It was intoxicating to imagine, and Facebook's sudden, faithful rendering in 2004 of the physical world into the virtual felt the same. What could you do, now that you could see and connect to everyone and everything, instantly? "But what, also, could be diminished by such quick access? In the realm of ideas, it seemed easy: Who wouldn't want to distribute and discuss ideas widely? However, in the realm of the personal, it seemed more complicated. What was the benefit of doing everything in public? Is information itself neutral, or do different types of information have different values, different levels of expectation of privacy, different implications for distribution and consumption? Should all information be shared equally quickly and without regard to my relationship to it? And, finally, and most important, as we ask whenever we begin a new relationship with anything, would this be good for me?" -- From the Introduction
The Boy Kings
by Katherine LosseKate Losse was a grad school refugee when she joined Facebook as employee #51 in 2005. Hired to answer user questions such as "What is a poke?" and "Why can't I access my ex-girlfriend's profile?" her early days at the company were characterized by a sense of camaraderie, promise, and ambition: Here was a group of scrappy young upstarts on a mission to rock Silicon Valley and change the world. Over time, this sense of mission became so intense that working for Facebook felt like more than just a job; it implied a wholehearted dedication to "the cause." Employees were incentivized to live within one mile of the office, summers were spent carousing at the company pool house, and female employees were told to wear T-shirts with founder Mark Zuckerberg's profile picture on his birthday. Losse started to wonder what this new medium meant for real-life relationships: Would Facebook improve our social interactions? Or would we all just adapt our behavior to the habits and rules of these brilliant but socially awkward Internet savants who have become today's youngest power players? Increasingly skeptical, Losse graduated from customer service to the internationalization team--tasked with rolling out Facebook to the rest of the world-- finally landing a seat right outside Zuckerberg's office as his personal ghostwriter, the voice of the boy king. This book takes us for the first time into the heart of this fast-growing information empire, inviting us to high-level meetings with Zuckerberg; lifting the veil on long nights of relentless hacking and trolling; taking us behind the scenes of raucous company parties; and introducing us to the personalities, values, and secret ambitions of the floppy-haired boy wonders who are redefining the way we live, love, and work. By revealing here what's really driving both the business and the culture of the social network, Losse answers the biggest question of all: What kind of world is Facebook trying to build, and is it the world we want to live in? *** "Logging on to Facebook that first day, in retrospect, was the second, and to date the last, time that any technology has captured my imagination. The first was when Apple advertised the first laptop, the PowerBook, in the 1990s--with the words, 'What's on your PowerBook?' "'World domination,' my teenaged self- answered instinctively. That's what these devices were made for, I thought: so small and yet so powerful, so capable of linking quickly to and between everything else in the world. From the laptop, I could write and distribute information faster than ever before. It was intoxicating to imagine, and Facebook's sudden, faithful rendering in 2004 of the physical world into the virtual felt the same. What could you do, now that you could see and connect to everyone and everything, instantly? "But what, also, could be diminished by such quick access? In the realm of ideas, it seemed easy: Who wouldn't want to distribute and discuss ideas widely? However, in the realm of the personal, it seemed more complicated. What was the benefit of doing everything in public? Is information itself neutral, or do different types of information have different values, different levels of expectation of privacy, different implications for distribution and consumption? Should all information be shared equally quickly and without regard to my relationship to it? And, finally, and most important, as we ask whenever we begin a new relationship with anything, would this be good for me?" -- From the Introduction
A Boy Made of Blocks: The most uplifting novel of the year
by Keith StuartTHE RICHARD AND JUDY BOOK CLUB 2017 BESTSELLER AND NUMBER ONE AMAZON BESTSELLER'The publishing sensation of the year: a compelling, uplifting and heart-rending debut novel'Mail on SundayA Boy Made of Blocks is a funny, heartwarming story of family and love inspired by the author's own experiences with his son, the perfect latest obsession for fans of The Rosie Project, David Nicholls and Jojo Moyes. A father who rediscovers loveAlex loves his wife Jody, but has forgotten how to show it. He loves his son Sam, but doesn't understand him. He needs a reason to grab his future with both hands.A son who shows him how to liveMeet eight-year-old Sam: beautiful, surprising - and different. To him the world is a frightening mystery. But as his imagination comes to life, his family will be changed . . . for good.*Keith Stuart's magical and moving second novel Days of Wonder is available to pre-order now.*'One of those wonderful books that makes you laugh and cry at the same time'Good Housekeeping'Funny, expertly plotted and written with enormous heart. Readers who enjoyed The Rosie Project will love A Boy Made of Blocks - I did'Graeme Simsion'Very funny, incredibly poignant and full of insight. Awesome.'Jenny Colgan'Heartwarming'The Unmumsy Mum'A wonderful, warm, insightful novel about family, friendship and love'Daily Mail'A great plot, with a rare sense of honesty'Guardian'A truly beautiful story'Heat'A heartwarming and wise story'Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of Love
A Boy Made of Blocks: The most uplifting novel of the year
by Keith Stuart***THE RICHARD AND JUDY BOOK CLUB 2017 BESTSELLER***'The publishing sensation of the year: a compelling, uplifting and heart-rending debut novel'Mail on SundayThe number one Amazon bestseller A Boy Made of Blocks is a moving, funny and heartwarming story of family and love inspired by the author's own experiences with his son, the perfect latest obsession for fans of The Rosie Project, David Nicholls and Jojo Moyes. A father who rediscovers loveAlex loves his wife Jody, but has forgotten how to show it. He loves his son Sam, but doesn't understand him. He needs a reason to grab his future with both hands.A son who shows him how to liveMeet eight-year-old Sam: beautiful, surprising - and different. To him the world is a frightening mystery. But as his imagination comes to life, his family will be changed . . . for good.'One of those wonderful books that makes you laugh and cry at the same time'Good Housekeeping'Funny, expertly plotted and written with enormous heart. Readers who enjoyed The Rosie Project will love A Boy Made of Blocks - I did'Graeme Simsion'Very funny, incredibly poignant and full of insight. Awesome.'Jenny Colgan'Heartwarming'The Unmumsy Mum'A wonderful, warm, insightful novel about family, friendship and love'Daily Mail'A great plot, with a rare sense of honesty'Guardian'A truly beautiful story'Heat'A heartwarming and wise story'Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of Love
The Boy Made of Snow
by Chloë MayerIn a sleepy English village in 1944, Annabel and her son Daniel live in the shadow of war. With her husband away, an increasingly isolated Annabel begins to lose her grip on reality.