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From New York Times bestselling author Tom Perrotta, hailed by critics as "the Steinbeck of Suburbia" (Time), "our Balzac of the burbs" (Chicago Sun-Times), and "an American Chekhov" (The New York Times), comes a gripping and darkly nostalgic tale about a tumultuous summer in 1970s suburban New Jersey, from the perspective of a middle-aged writer looking back on a series of events that changed his life-and the story he finally has the courage to tell.
Jimmy Perrini lives in 1970s suburban New Jersey, a few miles from Manhattan, but a world apart. At the end of eighth grade, after tragedy strikes, Jimmy finds himself lost in a fog of grief that alienates him from friends and family, drifting instead into troubling friendships with two older teenagers: one a notorious local burnout with a fast car, an endless supply of weed, and a shaky grasp of reality; the other a smart, eccentric girl, whom Jimmy finds himself drawn to as they become entranced by her Ouija board, which may just offer the only salve to their grief.
As a fateful public drama unfolds, Jimmy is torn between the occult beyond and the cold realities of the place he has called home. Narrated by a much older Jimmy, a literary-turned-commercial novelist, Ghost Town reveals how the past haunts the present-the way our ghosts are always with us, even when we think we've left them behind. Tom Perrotta is the author of eleven works of fiction, including Election and Little Children, both of which were made into Oscar-nominated films, and The Leftovers and Mrs. Fletcher, which were adapted into acclaimed HBO series. His new novel is Ghost Town. "Perrotta's fine prose brings into relief the daily details of a suburban teen dealing with the impact of personal loss."
Jimmy Perrini lives in 1970s suburban New Jersey, a few miles from Manhattan, but a world apart. At the end of eighth grade, after tragedy strikes, Jimmy finds himself lost in a fog of grief that alienates him from friends and family, drifting instead into troubling friendships with two older teenagers: one a notorious local burnout with a fast car, an endless supply of weed, and a shaky grasp of reality; the other a smart, eccentric girl, whom Jimmy finds himself drawn to as they become entranced by her Ouija board, which may just offer the only salve to their grief.
As a fateful public drama unfolds, Jimmy is torn between the occult beyond and the cold realities of the place he has called home. Narrated by a much older Jimmy, a literary-turned-commercial novelist, Ghost Town reveals how the past haunts the present-the way our ghosts are always with us, even when we think we've left them behind. Tom Perrotta is the author of eleven works of fiction, including Election and Little Children, both of which were made into Oscar-nominated films, and The Leftovers and Mrs. Fletcher, which were adapted into acclaimed HBO series. His new novel is Ghost Town. "Perrotta's fine prose brings into relief the daily details of a suburban teen dealing with the impact of personal loss."
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Reviews
"With an intimate, well-paced narration, Robert Petkoff puts the listener squarely in the middle of the action and in the mind of the protagonist. He has the right tone and voice for 13-year-old Jimmy Perrini. This coming-of-age novel demonstrates Perrotta's gift for writing dialogue, capturing a historical period, and crafting place-here, 1970s suburban New Jersey. After Jimmy's mother dies unexpectedly, he attends a séance, later hears his mother, and sees ghostly shapes. Decades later, the adult Perrini, a successful author living across the country, reluctantly returns to his hometown to give a reading.
Perrotta's fine prose brings into relief the daily details of a suburban teen dealing with the impact of personal loss."
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