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Where Things Come Back

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Where Things Come Back

By: John Corey Whaley
Narrated by: Josh Hurley, Fred Berman
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About this listen

Winner of the 2012 Michael L. Printz and William C. Morris Awards, this poignant and hilarious story of loss and redemption “explores the process of grief, second chances, and even the meaning of life” (Kirkus Reviews).

In the remarkable, bizarre, and heart-wrenching summer before Cullen Witter’s senior year of high school, he is forced to examine everything he thinks he understands about his small and painfully dull Arkansas town. His cousin overdoses; his town becomes absurdly obsessed with the alleged reappearance of an extinct woodpecker; and most troubling of all, his sensitive, gifted fifteen-year-old brother, Gabriel, suddenly and inexplicably disappears. Meanwhile, the crisis of faith spawned by a young missionary’s disillusion in Africa prompts a frantic search for meaning that has far-reaching consequences. As distant as the two stories initially seem, they are woven together through masterful plotting and merge in a surprising and harrowing climax. This extraordinary tale from a rare literary voice finds wonder in the ordinary and illuminates the hope of second chances.

©2012 John Corey Whaley (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
Difficult Situations Family & Relationships Literature & Fiction Romance Comedy Funny Witty
All stars
Most relevant
a few funny bits a few sad bits .. like a good Sunday movie 😊

just nice

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I have to say that I found this book to be brilliant. It holds a certain amount of magical realism in it though there was nothing explicitly magical in it. It was just the author's way of weaving what seems to be two stories but turns out to be a whole mess of people's stories together, making each and every character wonderful and sympathetic.



The book starts brilliantly, drawing out the disappearance of Gabriel so that we can see who the characters were and how they change over the course of the novel. This book is particularly bizarre and real at the same time, with the main character constantly daydreaming about scenes that he doesn't feel comfortable himself in dealing with. (However the only thing that irked me is that when this happened, Cullen would constantly refer to himself in third person, and it got a bit tiresome after a while).



The second story seems random but it is woven together very well, leaving you very satisfied with the outcome of the book. This books is just about a good kid with a good story told remarkably well, transporting you to the places where this book takes place. Lily, Arkansas was one of my favourite things about this book, it was just told so well you believed that it existed, and these people existed and so on and so forth.



Just....read it. Please.

You will not regret this book

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