How To Find Your Way In The Dark
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4.4 • 11 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
FINALIST FOR THE NATIONAL JEWISH BOOK AWARD
WINNER OF THE JEWISH FICTION AWARD FROM THE ASSOCIATION OF JEWISH LIBRARIES
"[Miller’s] character portraits are indelible, often heartbreaking. At times this novel moved me to tears, the highest possible compliment.”
—New York Times Book Review
With the wit and scope of Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, Derek B. Miller tackles his most ambitious epic yet. At its heart is the return of Sheldon Horowitz, the protagonist from Miller’s award-winning first novel, Norwegian by Night, who was lauded by Pulitzer Prize–winning author Richard Russo as “one of the most memorable characters . . . that I’ve encountered in years.”
MEET SHELDON IN THE MORNING OF HIS LIFE
Twelve-year old Sheldon Horowitz is still recovering from the tragic loss of his mother only a year ago when a suspicious traffic accident steals the life of his father near their home in rural Massachusetts. It is 1938, and Sheldon, who was in the truck, emerges from the crash an orphan hell-bent on revenge. He takes that fire with him to Hartford, where he embarks on a new life under the roof of his buttoned-up Uncle Nate. Sheldon, his teenage cousins Abe and Mirabelle, and his best friend, Lenny, will contend with tradition and orthodoxy, appeasement and patriotism, mafia hitmen and angry accordion players, all while World War II takes center stage alongside a hurricane in New England and comedians in the Catskills. With his eye always on vengeance for his father’s murder, Sheldon stakes out his place in a world he now understands is comprised largely of crimes: right and wrong, big and small.
“For me—as I’m certain it will be for every reader of the wonderful Norwegian By Night—Derek B. Miller’s new novel is a genuine literary event (Sheldon Horowitz is back!). Miller has long deserved to be a household name. How to Find Your Way in the Dark should finally make him one."
—Richard Russo, author of Empire Falls and Chances Are...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This terrific coming-of-age story, a prequel to Miller's Norwegian by Night, follows Sheldon Horowitz from his parents' deaths before his 13th birthday in 1937 to his departure a decade later from the isolated New England village where he and Lenny Bernstein, his best friend and the only other Jewish kid he knows, lead lives largely sheltered from both anti-Semitism and Jewish culture. Sheldon, a tough kid with outdoor skills cultivated during a childhood spent hunting and trapping with his father, a shell-shocked WWI vet, decides, correctly, that the accident that killed his dad as they drove home from his mother's funeral was murder, and devotes his teen years to seeking vengeance while living with an uncle. This quest spirals into grimly entertaining capers, including a jewel heist in the burgeoning borscht belt resorts of the Catskills. Diverting subplots track America's entry into WWII and the birth of modern stand-up comedy, as shown by Lenny's hilarious forays into showbiz. Readers will root for Sheldon, a memorable survivor, every step of the way.
