D James Smith – författare

Paolo's plan for August in Orange Grove City is to hire out his little brother to the neighbors. Georgie is six; he needs a manager. But then the family dog, Rufus, is stolen. Overnight, Paolo is trying to manage not just Georgie, but their deaf cousin, Billy, who speaks only with his hands; Henry, a strange vacation visitor whom the boys discover living locked in his aunt's attic; and Butter Schwartz, a lonely, half-wild schemer with a paper route. The last two are definite dognapping suspects.... To top it all, a girl with a big-time crush on Paolo won't let him be, day or night, crisis or no crisis. For her, missing Rufus is nothing to snaring Paolo, who has met his match as a manager. The solution to the mystery of Rufus, the threat of Theresa, and the future must rest in Billy's hands.

In this small gem of a novel, a thoughtful boy on the lip of adolescence struggles to make sense of the evil that resides in his small town. Told with brilliant, lyric push, this tale reveals the unconscious rush that childhood is, that nagging dream that still persists because it means something to the heart. At twelve, this boy floats quietly through his world, voyeur to the complexities that both bind and tear his seemingly placid community. He follows his father, a staunch Baptist, when he joins a strike at the town’s one plant, follows his mother, an Asian war bride, who wants most it seems to erase herself, tracks the mystery of a young prostitute he hopes can heal his older brother who is adrift after a tour in Vietnam.