The Outside Boy
A Novel
-
- $12.99
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
A poignant, coming of age novel about an Irish gypsy boy’s childhood in the 1950’s from the national bestselling author of A Rip in Heaven and American Dirt.
Ireland, 1959: Young Christopher Hurley is a tinker, a Pavee gypsy, who roams with his father and extended family from town to town, carrying all their worldly possessions in their wagons. Christy carries with him a burden of guilt as well, haunted by the story of his mother’s death in childbirth.
The wandering life is the only one Christy has ever known, but when his grandfather dies, everything changes. His father decides to settle briefly, in a town, where Christy and his cousin can receive proper schooling and prepare for their first communions. But still, always, they are treated as outsiders.
As Christy struggles to find his way amid the more conventional lives of his new classmates, he starts to question who he is and where he belongs. But then the discovery of an old newspaper photograph, and a long-buried secret from his mother’s mysterious past, changes his life forever....
Customer Reviews
Couldn’t put it down
I couldn’t put it down. I am a teacher of ELL (English Language Learners)students. I have many students from Central America and Mexico. This story will give me momentum on the tough days when it seems the students are not trying. I have much compassion and love for my students, but the memory of this book will give me stamina to keep going with a deeper level of understanding of the hardships some of them have faced. I want to be one of the good guys that these people desperately deserve.
American Dirt
Just wonderful
Life of Irish Travellers revealed
When I went to Ireland, our bus was parked in front of a Traveller’s old RV trailer. A teacher went back there to get her ‘reading’ done. That’s my extent of understanding who they were. This book really opened my eyes to the richness of their lives and traditions. The main character, Christy, struggles with understanding between the world he grew up with and the home dwellers. Amazing love story and boy’s adventure and turmoil in learning about himself.