Series: n/a
Pages: 228
Source: Purchased
Buy it: The Book Depository (Free Shipping)
In the remarkable, bizarre, and heart-wrenching summer before Cullen Witter's senior year of high school, he is forced to examine everything he thinks he understands about his small and painfully dull Arkansas town. His cousin overdoses; his town becomes absurdly obsessed with the alleged reappearance of an extinct woodpecker; and most troubling of all, his sensitive, gifted fifteen-year-old brother, Gabriel, suddenly and inexplicably disappears.
Meanwhile, the crisis of faith spawned by a young missionary’s disillusion in Africa prompts a frantic search for meaning that has far-reaching consequences. As distant as the two stories initially seem, they are woven together through masterful plotting and merge in a surprising and harrowing climax.
This extraordinary tale from a rare literary voice finds wonder in the ordinary and illuminates the hope of second chances.
The Short
Where Things Come Back is a powerful, shocking, unexpected contemporary that left me stunned. Whilst I found the beginning a little slow and it took some time for me to grow connected to the characters, the story progressed in intensity very quickly. The beautiful writing and the ending really stood out for me, making it well worth the read.
The Long
