About Boo: Oliver Dalrymple is an outcast at his Illinois middle school--more interested in biology and chemistry than the friendship of other kids. But after a tragic accident, Boo wakes up to find himself in a very strange sort of heaven: a town populated only by 13-year-old Americans. With the help of his classmate Johnny, who was killed at the same time, Boo begins to figure out what exactly happened to them (and who they really were back in America) through this story about growing up, staying young and the never-ending heartbreak of being 13.
"Short story writer Smith (Bang Crunch) delivers a splendidly confident debut novel, a fantasy of emotional healing in a unique afterlife... Smith smoothly develops his vision of an afterlife in which a theoretical god supplies random items from the living world, electronics run without power, and kids are left to their own devices. The story is never about providing solid answers, but readers who appreciate that sort of ambiguity will find that the emotional payoffs are both surprising and moving."—Publishers Weekly starred review
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| Photo credit: Alain Abel |
Neil Smith grew up in the United States and Canada and now lives in Montreal. His first book, the critically acclaimed story collection Bang Crunch, was chosen as a book of the year by the Washington Post and the Globe and Mail and was nominated for the Hugh MacLennan Prize and the Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Best First Book (Canada). He also works as a translator from French to English.
