Grand & Humble
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- 3,49 €
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- 3,49 €
Publisher Description
Two boys, both at a crossroads...
Harlan and Manny are both seventeen years old, but they couldn't be more different. Harlan is an athlete with a beautiful girlfriend, the son of a powerful U.S. Senator, and possibly the most popular kid in his high school. Meanwhile, Manny is a quirky theater geek, the son of a struggling single father, and one of the school's least popular kids. And yet, Harlan and Manny both share the same sense of foreboding, a feeling that something is not right in each of their lives.
They have something else in common as well, even if they don't know it. Fourteen years ago, when they were both three years old, a tragedy occurred — an accident that would link the two boys together forever, even as it ultimately drove them apart. It's an event that both of them barely remember, but it still haunts them in the form of Harlan's premonitions and Manny's nightmares. Somehow both boys know that nothing will ever be right until they can each unravel the secret of the terrifying instant that lies at the center of both their lives.
REVIEWS
"An astonishing surprise ending, unlikely to be anticipated but fairly clued in for the reader detective. The immensely talented author is a master of structure." (Highest Rating)
– Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
"Parallels and double meanings abound in this tricky, but satisfying, double narrative. It's all about fate and connections for the grand and the humble."
– Kirkus Reviews
"This is a taut, skillfully woven psychological thriller with an ending they'll never see coming; fans of coming of age stories and clever plots will be absorbed by this haunting parable."
– The Bulletin
"There's a surprise twist at the end: talk about a fork in the road!…[A] taut and clever thriller."
– Kliatt
"A brilliant twist near the end makes their worlds collide in a moment of epiphany. Grand & Humble is a wonderful story told with a sure and able hand."
– Crime Spree Magazine
ACCOLADES
•Optioned for Development as a Feature Film
•A #1 Amazon Bestseller
•Winner of the Scandiuzzi Children's Book Award
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Two 17-year-olds with very different lives both begin experiencing strange phenomena in Hartinger's (Geography Club) suspenseful novel. Rich, popular Harlan, the son of a senator, begins having premonitions of his own death (one of which almost comes true when a bus narrowly misses him on the corner of Grand and Humble Streets). Meanwhile, theater "geek" Manny has terrible nightmares, which make him question his own past questions that his usually sensitive father does not want to answer. Readers will be curious about the connection between these two opposite protagonists, whose stories unfold in alternating chapters. But they may find that some of the plot points stretch credibility. It's hard to believe, for instance, that Manny did not previously question his missing baby pictures, and Harlan's mother seems overly cruel (she began blackmailing him back when he was in the Boy Scouts) and micromanages his life, using guilt trips and threats. Still, despite the contrivances, readers will likely be impressed when they finally discover the link between Manny and Harlan (and they will have something to think about when the book ends). Ages 14-up.
