The Boy in His Winter, Norman Lock
The Boy in His Winter, Norman Lock
List: $16.95 | Sale: $11.87
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The Boy in His Winter
An American Novel

Author: Norman Lock

Narrator: Grover Gardner

Unabridged: 5 hr 40 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/13/2014

Synopsis

Launched into existence by Mark Twain in 1835, Huck Finn and Jim have now been transported by Norman Lock through three vital, violent, and transformative centuries of American history. As time unfurls on the river's banks, they witness decisive battles of the Civil War, the betrayal of Reconstruction's promises to the freed slaves, the crushing of the Native American nations, and the electrification of a continent. Huck, who finally comes of age when he's washed up on shore during Hurricane Katrina, narrates the story as an older and wiser man in 2077, revealing our nation's past, present, and future as Mark Twain could never have dreamed it.The Boy in His Winter is a tour de force work of imagination, beauty, and courage that reenvisions a great American literary classic for our time.

About Norman Lock

Norman Lock is the award-winning author of novels, short fiction, and poetry, as well as stage, radio, and screenplays. He has won the Dactyl Foundation Literary Fiction Award, the Paris Review’s Aga Khan Prize for Fiction, and writing fellowships from the New Jersey Council on the Arts, the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Lock’s The Boy in His Winter is also available from Blackstone Audio.

About Grover Gardner

Grover Gardner is an award-winning narrator with over a thousand titles to his credit. Named one of the “Best Voices of the Century” and a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, he has won three prestigious Audie Awards, was chosen Narrator of the Year for 2005 by Publishers Weekly, and has earned more than thirty Earphones Awards.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Nancy on June 07, 2018

In the year 2077 Huck Finn reflects back on his life, beginning in 1835 when he and the escaped slave Jim began their raft journey down the Mississippi River. Somehow they became time travelers until Hurricane Katrina shipwrecked Huck back into passing time. Along the way, they saw America caught in......more

Goodreads review by Nathan on August 04, 2016

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads, and am grateful for the opportunity. To write a sequel to a classic novel is a daunting task on its own, and to give the original tale, rooted in reality, otherworldly elements only increases the danger. Yet Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn......more

Goodreads review by Jane on May 18, 2014

Super! Here's my review for NPR.org: [URL not allowed]......more

Goodreads review by Tuck on May 29, 2014

neat imagining if huck and jim did not stop and get off their raft, but rather just kept going, time out of time. so now, in 2077 huck relates the "rest of the story". not a whole lot happens in this novel, as the narrator loathed mark twain's style of one (mis)adventure after nother with no real si......more

Goodreads review by Kathryn on July 05, 2014

I really wanted to love this book because the premise is so cool: Huck Finn and Jim are caught in a kind of time warp during their trip down the Mississippi in 1835, and 170 years pass before Huck makes it to the Gulf of Mexico during Hurricane Katrina- still age 13. Huck is telling his story as an......more

Quotes

“In this surreal and otherworldly river journey through time, Norman Lock transports Huck Finn down the Mississippi and deep into America’s history—and future. Elegant and imaginative, The Boy in His Winter is a tale that’s as hypnotic as it is profound.” Gilbert King, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Devil in the Grove

“I read Norman Lock’s The Boy in His Winter with delight and amazement. Styled in the vernacular of a rapidly changing America, it stays true to the themes of Mark Twain’s original: class relations, race and slavery, childhood innocence, moral hypocrisy—and, of course, the stark beauty and unforgiving nature of America’s greatest river. I finished this absolutely elegant narrative feeling that Huck Finn has never been more alive.” David Oshinsky, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Polio: An American Story

“[Lock] is one of the most interesting writers out there. This time, he reimagines Huck Finn’s journeys, transporting the iconic character deep into America’s past—and future.” Reader’s Digest

“Inspired by Mark Twain and propelled by the currents of the Mississippi River, this is a tall tale that Lock has abducted and handed over to Huck Finn…Lock plays profound tricks, with language—his is crystalline and underline-worthy—and with time, the perfect metaphor for which is the mighty Mississippi itself.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Grover Gardner adopts the mantle of Mark Twain’s Huck Finn with precisely the timbre, emphasis, and pacing that one would imagine of a matured Finn who has been thrown into the future…Author Lock achieves a most curious pastiche of the Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn saga, and his recognizable adaptation of Twain’s quintessential humorous style charms the listener. Fans of Twain will enjoy the many references to the original works.” AudioFile

“An eclectic hybrid of literary appropriation, Zelig-like historical narrative, time-travel tale, and old-style picaresque.” Kirkus Reviews

Awards

  • Publishers Weekly Pick of the Week
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