The Silver Star - Softcover

Walls, Jeannette

Softcover

ISBN 10: 147112908X ISBN 13: 9781471129087

Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK, 2013

Synopsis

It is 1970. 'Bean' Holladay is twelve and her sister Liz fifteen when their artistic mother Charlotte, a woman who 'flees every place she's ever lived at the first sign of trouble', takes off to 'find herself'. She leaves the girls enough money for food to last a month or two. But when Bean gets home from school one day and sees a police car outside the house, she and Liz board a bus from California to Virginia, where their widowed Uncle Tinsley lives in the decaying antebellum mansion that has been in the family for generations.

An impetuous optimist, Bean discovers who her father was and learns many stories about why their mother left Virginia in the first place. Money is tight, so Liz and Bean start babysitting and doing office work for Jerry Madox, foreman of the mill in town, a big man who bullies workers, tenants and his wife. Bean adores her whip-smart older sister, inventor of word games, reader of Edgar Allan Poe, non-conformist. But when school starts in the autumn, it is Bean who easily adjusts and makes friends, and Liz who becomes increasingly withdrawn. And then something happens between Liz and Maddox...

About this title

Review:

Jeannette Walls jumps off the memoir train and hitches a ride on the novel form with The Silver Star". --Elissa Schappell "Vanity Fair "

Jeannette Walls transports us with her powerful storytelling Using Bean s expertly crafted, naively stubborn voice, Walls contemplates the extraordinary bravery needed to confront real-life demons in a world where the hardest thing to do may be to not run away. --Abbe Wright "O, the Oprah magazine "

Walls writes with equal tenderness for her most beloved characters and the least among them. It takes a compassionate soul to find the beauty in despair and that s what Walls does best. --Amy MacKinnon "The Patriot Ledger "

Walls is adept at steeping her characters in some intense, old-fashioned drama The Silver Star" is a lovely, moving novel with an appealing narrator in Bean. --Carmela Ciuraru "USA Today "

At heart Walls is a wonderful yarn-spinner This is a page-turner, built for hammock or beach reading. --Karen Valby "Entertainment Weekly "

Walls writes with the paired-down incisiveness of a memoirist looking for the significance of every incident, but it s the way she draws Bean, so strong even in the face of all the additional challenges that come with her age, gender, and innocence, that will make this book a hit with readers. --Nicholas Mancusi "The Daily Beast "

["The Silver Star" is] an examination of bad parenting and resilient children in a rich and complex setting. Bean is a compelling character, and it is fascinating to watch her ideas about both her mother and her sister change as the book progresses. --Sarah Rachel Egelman "Bookreporter.com "

Walls writing is lively and her dialogue crips, and the girls struggles with their mother ring true. --Margaret Quamme "The Columbus Dispatch "

Jeannette Walls is a master at her craft. In the same way she spoke candidly of her own parents shortcomings in The Glass Castle", in The Silver Star "she lends this candid voice to Bean, and captures the inner workings of an adolescent s mind perfectly .The Silver Star" stands strong as its own story, wholly unique and wholly captivating. --Kristin Fritz "EverdayEbook.com "

Great writing An absorbing, unsentimental tale of childhood. --Chelsea Cain "The New York Times Book Review "

About the Author:

Jeannette Walls was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and grew up in the southwest and Welch, Virginia. She graduated from Barnard College and was a journalist in New York City for twenty years. She now lives in rural Virginia with her husband, the writer John Taylor.

About this edition

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 147112908X
• ISBN 13: 9781471129087
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288