Please Don't Come Back from the Moon

Please Don't Come Back from the MoonThe summer Michael Smolij turns sixteen, his father disappears. One by one other men also vanish from the blue collar neighborhood outside Detroit where their fathers before them had lived, raised families, and, in a more promising era, worked. One man props open the door to his shoe store and leaves a note. "I'm going to the moon," it reads. "I took the cash." The wives drink, brawl, and sleep around, gradually settling down to make new lives and

The summer Michael Smolij turns sixteen, his father disappears. One by one other men also vanish from the blue-collar neighborhood outside Detroit where their fathers before them had lived, raised families, and, in a more promising era, worked. One man props open the door to his shoe store and leaves a note. "I'm going to the moon," it reads. "I took the cash."

The wives drink, brawl, and sleep around, gradually settling down to make new lives and shaking off the belief in an American dream that, like their husbands, has proven to be a thing of the past. Unable to leave the neighborhood their fathers abandoned, Michael and his friends stumble through their twenties until the restlessness of the fathers blooms in them, threatening to carry them away.

This is a haunting, unforgettable novel for anyone who has ever been left longing.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Mariner Books
Published: 01/01/2006
ISBN: 9780156031677
Pages: 273
Weight: 0.65lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.20w x 0.70d

Review Citations: New York Times 02/12/2006 pg. 24

Accelerated Reader Quiz #/Name: 86488 / Please Don't Come Back from the Moon
Reading Level: 5.3 / Interest Level: Upper Grade / Point Value: 11