Hayley Kincain has been homeschooled by her father in the cab of the eighteen-wheeler they’ve been crossing the country in since he got back from the Sandbox, but now they’ve settled down in his childhood home and she has to go to school. That would be fine if she had any social skills to speak of and if she didn’t constantly have her father on an alcohol, drugs and suicide watch. Painful as hell to read but such great characters, and so topical when you consider (as I learned via the author’s note) that this book was based on Anderson’s own relationship with her WWII veteran father. The wars change only in name, as do the repercussions, shell shock, battle fatigue, PTSD.

She gives us what may or may not be a happy ending, but… Recommended.

Book Review Monday Chatter Uncategorized Laurie Halse Anderson The Impossible Knife of Memory