The Impossible Knife of Memory
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Dive into this unforgettable young adult novel by the award-wining author of Speak and discover the impossible choices a family can face in the wake of a traumatic past.
“Anderson’s novels . . . speak for the still-silent among us, and force all of us to acknowledge the real and painful truths that are too dangerous to ignore.”—The New York Times
“With her trademark hope, humor, and heart-breaking realism, Laurie Halse Anderson has given us a roadmap to heal.”—Stephen Chobsky, New York Times bestselling author of The Perks of Being a Wallflower
When you’re forced to grow up too fast, it’s hard to slow down.
Hayley Kincain has two jobs: attending high school and caring for her father, Andy, a war veteran who suffers from PTSD. Hayley and Andy never stay in one place for too long, always picking up and leaving as soon as the demons torturing Andy become too much to bear. But when Hayley meets Finn, she finally allows herself to let go, finding solace in every moment they spend together. He becomes her refuge, her home. Then Andy’s symptoms begin to resurface, and Hayley is forced to make a decision: continue to keep running from her father’s illness, or face reality for a chance to hold on to the one thing that makes her truly happy.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As in Speak, Anderson provides a riveting study of a psychologically scarred teenager, peeling back layers of internal defenses to reveal a girl's deepest wounds. Her heroine, 17-year-old Hayley, is no stranger to loss. Her mother died when she was small, and she was later abandoned by her father's alcoholic girlfriend. Now the only family Hayley has left is her father, a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, whose horrific flashbacks have brought chaos into their lives. After traveling the country in a "dented eighteen-wheeler," the two of them have settled down in her father's hometown. Hayley feels like an outsider at a high school populated by "zombies," and, at home, it's becoming increasingly difficult to pretend that her father is getting better. Then Hayley is drawn to Finn, a boy who seemingly likes her for who she is. Hayley's anxiety about her father's unpredictable behavior reverberates throughout the novel, overshadowing and distorting her memories of better times. It's a tough, absorbing story of the effects of combat on soldiers and the people who love them. Ages 12 up.
