A Boy's Guide to Outer Space

Peter Selgin

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Year

2024

Language

English

Publisher

Regal House Publishing

About

1963. Hattertown, Connecticut. Leo " Half" Napoli mourns his dead hat factory worker father while daydreaming of being the first man on the moon and thereby " partaking of something of the infinite." Meanwhile, he and his fellow Back Shop Boys (their fathers all worked in the dangerous, mercury-fume-laden back shops of hat factories) seek to learn the identity of the mysterious Man in Blue, who wanders the town collecting odd items in his rucksack. Elected to spy on him, Half and the mysterious man form a secret friendship in the course of which Half learns not only what " Jack Thomas" has been collecting in his rucksack, and why, but the extraordinary circumstances that led to his fugitive existence - an odyssey extending from pre-WWII Bohemia to a German POW Camp in Illinois, and beyond.

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Reviews

"Reminiscent of Alain Fournier's 1913 classic, Le Grand Meaulnes, this is a novel for readers who love the drama of mysterious worlds and the spell of enchanting words."

Alta Ifland, author of The Wife Who Wasn't

"At turns poignant, zany, always fresh and exuberant, A Boy's Guide to Outer Space is a bittersweet coming of age story, beautifully told in exquisite prose."

Linda Lappin, author of Loving Modigliani: The Afterlife of Jeanne Hébuterne

"In his finely crafted novel, A Boy's Guide to Outer Space, Peter Selgin presents a lost world of 1960's small town life with all its constrictions and aspirations. Selgin skillfully balances the warmth of nostalgia with the disquieting blaze of youthful doubt and guilt. It's a poignant tale, with its share of loss and betrayal, but also a boisterous and humorous one-and, at its core, a meditation on the survival of the spirit."

Michael Nethercott, author of The Séance Society

Artists

Peter SelginAuthor