The Universe versus Alex Woods
An UNFORGETTABLE story of an unexpected friendship, an unlikely hero and an improbable journey
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5,0 • 2 beoordelingen
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*Perfect for fans of A BOY MADE OF BLOCKS*
**RICHARD AND JUDY summer bookclub read 2013, Amazon Rising star, and shortlisted for the Desmond Elliott Prize**
*** A funny and touching story of an unlikely friendship and an improbable journey***
Alex Woods knows that he hasn't had the most conventional start in life.
He knows that growing up with a clairvoyant single mother won't endear him to the local bullies.
He also knows that even the most improbable events can happen - he's got the scars to prove it.
What he doesn't know yet is that when he meets ill-tempered, reclusive widower Mr Peterson, he'll make an unlikely friend. Someone who tells him that you only get one shot at life. That you have to make the best possible choices.
So when, aged seventeen, Alex is stopped at Dover customs with 113 grams of marijuana, an urn full of ashes on the passenger seat, and an entire nation in uproar, he's fairly sure he's done the right thing.
A tale of an unexpected friendship, an unlikely hero and an improbable journey, Alex's story treads the fine line between light and dark, laughter and tears. And it might just strike you as one of the funniest, most heartbreaking novels you've ever read.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Seventeen-year-old Alex Woods was a household name even before authorities discovered 113g of marijuana and the ashes of an old man in the car he drove across the English border. At the age of 10 Alex became a national celebrity after being hit by a meteorite. In his teenage years he was most comfortable with adults like his doctors and Isaac Peterson, an irascible, reclusive, pot-smoking American widower who lives nearby in Alex's small village; Alex's only teenage friend is an emo goth girl named Ellie. Alex's naivet , bookishness, and oddness make him a target for bullies and his earnest response to one instance of abuse only solidifies his reputation. His mother's self-proclaimed powers of clairvoyance don't help Alex's rep, nor does the epilepsy he acquired after the accident. Peterson encourages Alex to read Vonnegut, prompting Alex to create a book club called the Secular Church of Kurt Vonnegut, giving Alex a leadership position that brings him the confidence he needs to help navigate his neighbor's lengthy illness, albeit with major missteps along the way. Extence's engaging coming-of-age debut skillfully balances light and dark, laughter and tears.
