The Smell of Other People's Houses - Softcover

Hitchcock, Bonnie-Sue

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571314953 ISBN 13: 9780571314959

Publisher: Faber & Faber, 2016

Synopsis

Alaska, 1970: growing up here is like nowhere else.

Ruth wants to be remembered by her grieving mother.
Dora wishes she was invisible to her abusive father.
Alyce is staying at home to please her parents.
Hank is running away for the sake of his brothers.

Four very different lives are about to become entangled. Because if we don't save each other, how can we begin to save ourselves?

Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock's extraordinary, stunning debut is both moving, and deeply authentic. These intertwining stories of love, tragedy, wild luck, and salvation on the edge of America's Last Frontier introduce a writer of rare and wonderful talent.

About this title

Review

"The physical landscape of Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock's Alaska is raw, beautiful and wholly unfamiliar, but the true wonder of this thrilling, arresting debut novel is that the emotional landscape feels just as powerful-and just as untrammeled." -- Gayle Forman, author of If I Stay

Hitchcock's debut resonates with the timeless quality of a classic. This is a fascinating character study-a poetic interweaving of rural isolation and coming-of-age. -- John Corey Whaley, author of Where Things Come Back

An honest, gritty and moving portrait of growing up in Alaska. Only someone who knows and loves this place through and through could tell this story. From coastal rainforests to the salmon fishing grounds and on to the vast interior of Alaska, Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock follows the lives of teenagers who struggle against great odds to believe in themselves, redefine their ideas of family, and find each other. Do not expect a rose-tinted view. Hitchcock does not shy away from hard truths such as alcoholism and teenage pregnancy. But with its bunny boots, tough characters, fish slime, three-wheelers, kindness where you least expect it, and touch of romance, this book is Alaska. The poems from Alaskan writers and Rebecca Poulson's woodcut prints are a beautiful addition. -- Eowyn Ivey, author of the New York Times bestseller The Snow Child

Using alternating narratives, debut novelist Hitchcock deftly weaves these stories together, setting them against the backdrop of a native Alaska that readers will find intoxicating. The gutsiness of these four teens who, at heart, are trying to find their places in the world and survive against challenging odds, will resonate with readers of all ages., Publishers Weekly

From the Author

Born and raised in Alaska and a longtime journalist for Alaska Public Radio, Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock spent ten years fishing commercially and raised her children on a boat in Southeast Alaska - bringing a rare authenticity to her writing about America's last frontier. She now lives in Lyons, Colorado, where she's slowly rebuilding her house after the catastrophic floods of September 2013. THE SMELL OF OTHER PEOPLE'S HOUSES is her first novel.

About this edition

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0571314953
• ISBN 13: 9780571314959
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272