Story Description:
St. Martin’s press|july 3,
2012|hardcover|ISBN: 978-0-312-36777-0
From the new York times bestselling author comes a
poignant, heartbreaking, and ultimately uplifting novel about an unlikely path
to motherhood, and of two lost souls healing each other in 1950 Tennessee, a
time and place that straddles the past and present.
Ivorie walker is considered an old maid by the
town (although she’s only in her early thirties) and she takes that label with
good humor and a grain of salt. Ever
since her parents passed away, she has hidden her loneliness behind a fierce
independence and a claim of not needing anyone.
But her mother’s death hit her harder than anyone suspects and ivorie
wonders if she will be alone forever.
When she realized that someone has been stealing vegetables from her
garden - a feral, dirty-faced boy who disappears into the hills – something about
him haunts ivorie. She can’t imagine
what would make him desperate enough to steal and eat from her garden. But what she truly can’t imagine is what the
boy faces, each day and night, in the filthy lean-to hut miles up in the
hills. Who is he? How did he come to live in the hills? Where did he come from? And, more importantly, can she save him? As ivories steps out of her comfort zone to
uncover answers, she unleashes a firestorm in the town – a community that would
rather let secrets stay secret.
My review:
Sarah ivorie walker is in her thirties, is
unmarried and just suffered the loss of both of her parents. Even those closest to her don’t realize just
hard her mother’s death has hit her. But
ivorie puddles along, tending her garden, milking her cow and driving into town
to visit her brother’s story for groceries.
One day she sees a dirty, emaciated, little boy
stealing vegetables from her garden and wonders who he is? Each day she watches for him to see where he
goes and realizes he lives up in the hills.
Ivories thought of those who had lived up there had long ago gone but
she quickly realized that wasn’t the case.
Ivorie could tell by the way the boy looked that he wasn’t well cared
for and decided to do something about it.
I won’t tell you how she got him but once she did, she and this young
boy began to build a bond like no other.
He couldn’t talk and every day ivorie would throw
names out to him: “Donald, david, frank, buzz,” but the young boy only shook
his head no. She kept trying when one
day they were out she waved to her old friend Pete and yelled “Hi Pete!” the young boy began tapping her leg in
excitement and making the sound he always made from the back of his throat
trying to tell her something. It
suddenly dawned on Ivorie his name was Peter.
Ivorie and Peter were tickled pink to finally learn this information.
As time goes on, the people of the town aren’t
happy with ivorie’s decision to bring this young boy into her home to raise as
her own son and they don’t mince words in telling her that. One night the lights in her house went out
while Peter was sleeping and ivorie walked to the back of the house to the fuse
panel to check the fuses when she was attacked from behind in the dark, her
face slammed up against the wall and only a male voice saying: “Get rid of the
boy!” ivorie’s face was terribly
beaten-up, with a cut under her eye and bruises everywhere and a split
lip. She ran to her bathroom and
cried. The following morning she didn’t
want to frighten peter so she told him she tripped and fell against the swings.
As the story progress, ivorie finally gets enough money so peter can have the surgery that will finally allow
him to talk after 8 years! The bond that
ivorie and peter develop is like none other.
I laughed, I cried, I sympathized, I empathized, and I cried some
more. There were many sad and dark
moments in this novel but just as many happy moments that were true cause for
the celebrations they had.
I would highly recommend this book to
everyone!! I won’t forget ivorie and
peter for a while.
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