Narrow the Road
-
- ¥1,500
-
- ¥1,500
発行者による作品情報
In this gripping coming-of-age odyssey, a young man’s quest to reunite his family takes him on a life-altering journey through the wilds of 1930s East Texas, where both danger and opportunity grow as thick as the pines.
With his father missing and his mother gravely ill, William Carter is struggling to keep his family’s cotton farm afloat in the face of drought and foreclosure. As his options wane, William receives a mysterious letter that claims to know his father’s whereabouts.
Together with his best friend Ollie, a mortician in training, William sets out to find his father and bring him home to set things right. But before the boys can complete their quest, they must navigate the labyrinth of the Big Thicket, some of the country’s most uncharted, untamed land. Along the way they encounter eccentric backwoods characters of every order, running afoul of murderers, bootleggers, and even the legendary Bonnie and Clyde.
But the danger is doubled when the boys agree to take on a medicine show runaway named Lena, eliciting the ire of the show’s leader, the nefarious con man Doctor Downtain. As William, Ollie, and Lena race to uncover the clues and find William’s father, Downtain is closing in on them, readying to make good on his violent reputation. With the clock ticking, William must decide where his loyalties lie and how far he’s willing to go for the people he loves.
From award-winning author James Wade, Narrow the Road is a riveting exploration of a young man’s hard-won coming-of-age and the courageous ways a person can forge a singular path in the face of overwhelming adversity. Alive with grit and tenderness, this is an unforgettable story of the power of friendship to sustain us through loss, betrayal, and devastating consequence.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Wade (Hollow Out the Dark) delivers a rewarding tale of a boy's quest to find his father in 1932 East Texas. William Carter, 15, has it bad: his mother is dying, the family cotton crop is blighted, the farm is about to be foreclosed on, and his father, Thomas, has disappeared. With the help of his friend Ollie Leek, a mortician's apprentice, William goes in search of his dad. On the way to the town where Thomas was last seen, they stop to take in Dr. Downtain's Mount Zaphon Medicine Show. They rescue an escapee from the show, a young woman named Lena Forester, whose mother sold her to the doctor. The three travel on together, following a trail of clues to Thomas's current whereabouts that takes them through wild territory known as the Thicket, where they come between feuding families and encounter legendary bank robber Clyde Barrow. All the while, they are pursued by Downtain, who wants Lena back, and Wade builds tension as the trio desperately try to locate William's father before Downtain finds them. The adventures are reminiscent of Davis Grubb's classic Southern gothic The Night of the Hunter, with its stark evocation of good versus evil. This odyssey of the West is tough to shake.
