'Anybody who is interested in rock music, great writing or remembering what it felt like to be ten needs to read this rare thing: a properly excellent novel about rock and roll' TOM COX Ten-year-old Theo lives with his grandfather and a minder in a vast, decrepit Long Island mansion said to have inspired The Great Gatsby.
His English father, a world famous rock musician, spends most of the year away on tour. His mother, beautiful and fragile, drifts in and out of his life amid bouts of rehab. Alone for much of the time, Theo takes refuge in his attic bedroom, among his collection of live butterfly pupas and the tales of piratical adventure that fire his imagination. Then, a fax arrives: 'Reef the mainsail.' It seems Theo's father is coming home to record a new album, and he's planning to stay the whole summer. Along with the rest of the band, managers, PR people, agents, and countless hangers-on good, bad and downright ugly . . . Over two life-changing days, Theo captures the mind and voice of a ten-year-old boy at the far edge of innocence. At once a tender coming-of-age story and an exploration of the radioactive effects of the rich and famous on those who love them, it peels away the image to look into the dark heart of fame and fortune. AUTHOR: Ed Taylor teaches literature and writing at Buffalo State College. He is a Pushcart Prize nominee and his story ''Grendel'' was selected as a "Notable Read" in Dave Eggers's anthology Best American Nonrequired Reading. His work appears in a variety of U.S. and U.K. periodicals and anthologies. SELLING POINTS: Potential word-of-mouth hit Captures the mind and voice of a 10-year-old boy with exquisite clarity and accuracy This is what celebrity can look like from the point of view of a child The author's shorter pieces have been published in McSweeney's and elsewhere
