Plum Jaggers, Susan Richards Shreve
Plum Jaggers, Susan Richards Shreve
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Plum & Jaggers

Author: Susan Richards Shreve

Narrator: Susan Richards Shreve

Unabridged: 7 hr 19 min

Format: Digital Audiobook (DRM Protected)

Published: 04/22/2014

Synopsis

For the McWilliams children, life is forever altered the day a terrorist bomb blast rips through the train carrying them across Italy, instantly killing their parents. Dazed and frightened, Charlotte, Oliver, and baby Julia cling to oldest brother Sam, who—only seven at the time—is haunted by every detail.After he and his siblings are taken in by their kindly but peculiar grandparents, Sam becomes consumed with protecting them at all costs. His compulsive behavior—which includes shoplifting materials to make a bomb shelter for the quartet—leads to his placement in “the Cage,” a juvenile detention center on the outskirts of Washington, DC. It is there that Sam, inspired by letters exchanged between his deceased parents, dreams up Plum & Jaggers, a darkly bizarre comedy troupe. Made up of him and his brother and sisters, the group pokes fun at life’s tragedies and will eventually carry them into adulthood. But even once grown, Sam McWilliams finds he cannot always stop things from blowing apart.

About Susan Richards Shreve

Susan Richards Shreve is the author of several novels, including A Student of Living Things and You Are the Love of My Life, as well as the memoir Warm Springs: Traces of a Childhood at FDR’s Polio Haven. She has also written dozens of children’s books, including The Lovely Shoes, and is the co-editor or editor of five anthologies. Shreve founded the MFA degree at George Mason University, where she is a professor of English and present co-chairman of the PEN/Faulkner Foundation. She has also taught at Columbia School of the Arts and Princeton University for the MFA programs. Among her numerous accolades are the Guggenheim Award for Fiction, the Grub Street Prize in Non-Fiction, and the Service Award from Poets & Writers. She lives and writes in Washington, DC.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Lillian on October 24, 2013

June 11 1974, seven year old Sam McWilliams and his three siblings are orphaned when the first two cars of the Espresso from Milan to Rome is bombed killing everyone aboard except for the conductor and a four year old French boy. How can you measure the damage resulting from such a tumultuous event?......more

Goodreads review by Tanya on February 15, 2021

I loved this sweet, heartbreaking book. Vagabond parents are traveling by train through Italy with their 4 children ages 1-7, when a terrorist bomb kills the parents. The traumatized children are moved to America to live with their loving but overwhelmed grandparents. Sam, the oldest, takes it upon......more

Goodreads review by Amanda on January 10, 2022

Oliver felt laughter, out of nowhere, for no reason, like unexpected nausea. His mind, arched like a cat for combat, fast-forwarded to a vision of himself there in the hospital room with his brother and sisters, and he was laughing, laughing, out of control, the laughter changed to tears and he was......more

Goodreads review by Jen on January 16, 2021

Fascinating to read a book published in 2000 - pre 9/11 - about the trauma and internalization of terrorism experienced first-hand and the attempts to create an external life afterwards. A gem of a psychological read, though some parts were not as tightly tied up as I'd have liked.......more

Goodreads review by Laurel on May 07, 2014

This is another book that I have hmmed and haaed over as to a rating. At the beginning of the book I was quite intrigued, thinking it would be like "A Series of Unfortunate Events" and as the book continued to make some weird turns in the middle I found myself less attached as I was to Snicket's wri......more

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