The Last Road Home, Danny Johnson
The Last Road Home, Danny Johnson
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

The Last Road Home

Author: Danny Johnson

Narrator: James Patrick Cronin

Unabridged: 9 hr 51 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 07/26/2016


Synopsis

From Pushcart Prize nominee Danny Johnson comes a powerful, lyrical debut novel that explores race relations, first love, and coming-of-age in North Carolina in the 1950s and '60s. At eight years old, Raeford "Junebug" Hurley has known more than his share of hard lessons. After the sudden death of his parents, he goes to live with his grandparents on a farm surrounded by tobacco fields and lonesome woods. There he meets Fancy Stroud and her twin brother, Lightning, the children of black sharecroppers on a neighboring farm. As years pass, the friendship between Junebug and bright, compassionate Fancy takes on a deeper intensity. Junebug, aware of all the ways in which he and Fancy are more alike than different, habitually bucks against the casual bigotry that surrounds them--dangerous in a community ruled by the Klan. On the brink of adulthood, Junebug is drawn into a moneymaking scheme that goes awry--and leaves him with a dark secret he must keep from those he loves. And as Fancy, tired of saying yes'um and living scared, tries to find her place in the world, Junebug embarks on a journey that will take him through loss and war toward a hard-won understanding. At once tender and unflinching, The Last Road Home delves deep into the gritty, violent realities of the South's turbulent past, yet evokes the universal hunger for belonging

Reviews

Goodreads review by Esil on July 23, 2016

I'm not going to say much about The Last Road Home because I don't like being too critical of first novels, and based on the very positive reviews so far, my mixed reaction to this book appears to make me an outlier. The setting, idea and themes were real draws for me. The book focuses on Junebug --......more

Goodreads review by Whispering on April 04, 2018

Book Reviewed by Clive on www.whisperingstories.com In The Last Road Home Danny Johnson has produced something very close to a masterpiece. Within 310 pages we have history, romance, family love and psychology. The book is extremely easy to read with short chapters that encourage you to read on. Told......more

Goodreads review by Susanne on February 08, 2017

An Absolutely Stellar Debut! Poignant, Gut-wrenching and beautifully written. One of the best books I’ve read this year. Danny Johnson’s The Last Road Home is a coming of age novel that explores the harsh realities of race relations in the South in the 1950 and 60’s. Junebug Hurley is eight years old......more

Goodreads review by Danny on August 11, 2016

Dear Danny, My husband and I recently repatriated to Raleigh after 21 years abroad. I am an avid reader and have been in book clubs for years. I happened across your new book at Quail Ridge Books last Sunday and found the content intriguing as my father was a fourth generation tobacco farmer in Wake C......more

Goodreads review by Myndi on July 27, 2016

Because of the subject matter – an interracial relationship in the south in the early 60’s – I expected this to be an emotionally difficult read. Up to the last hundred pages, I was on pins and needles, paralyzed by pent up tension, waiting for something awful to happen. And bad things happened, don......more