Then Aunt Val got arrested for something Mom wouldn’t say, leaving no one to take care of Wavy. The first news she had was that Uncle Liam had been arrested for dealing drugs, and Aunt Val needed money. That was where Mom first started polishing The Tragic and Edifying Story of Wavonna Quinn.Īfter Wavy was born, Mom didn’t hear from Aunt Val for almost five years. Sometimes they talked about books, but mostly they gossiped. I learned all this from eavesdropping on Mom’s Tuesday night book club. If you ever consider playing Good Samaritan to a pregnant woman, think about cleaning that up. Nine months pregnant, Aunt Val hitchhiked to the next town for help. She was born in the backseat of a stranger’s car, because Uncle Liam and Aunt Val were homeless, driving through Texas when their old beat-up van broke down. Maybe on the way to the hospital, your parents’ respectable, middle-class car broke down. It seemed to me that could happen to anybody. My mother always started the story by saying, Well, she was born in the backseat of a stranger’s car, as though that explained why Wavy wasn’t normal. Top Ten Hottest Reads of 2016 - New York Daily Newsīest Books of 2016 - St. A powerful novel you won’t soon forget, Bryn Greenwood's All the Ugly and Wonderful Things challenges all we know and believe about love.ģ1 Books Bringing the Heat this Summer - Bustle
When tragedy rips Wavy's family apart, a well-meaning aunt steps in, and what is beautiful to Wavy looks ugly under the scrutiny of the outside world. After witnessing his motorcycle wreck, she forms an unusual friendship with one of her father's thugs, Kellen, a tattooed ex-con with a heart of gold.īy the time Wavy is a teenager, her relationship with Kellen is the only tender thing in a brutal world of addicts and debauchery. Obsessed with the constellations, she finds peace in the starry night sky above the fields behind her house, until one night her star gazing causes an accident. Struggling to raise her little brother, Donal, eight-year-old Wavy is the only responsible adult around. It's safer to keep her mouth shut and stay out of sight. Second Place Goodreads Best Fiction of 2016Ī beautiful and provocative love story between two unlikely people and the hard-won relationship that elevates them above the Midwestern meth lab backdrop of their lives.Īs the daughter of a drug dealer, Wavy knows not to trust people, not even her own parents. Book of the Month Club 2016 Book of the Year A New York Times and USA Today bestseller
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