Like a Train Wreck Waiting to Happen

We can all see it – that point in a book when the story train is picking up speed and the inevitable wreck is about to happen. There’s nothing we can do except keep reading and watch is happen, and despite our shout-outs to the characters they just don’t listen.

Eden Close by Anita Shreve
Andrew, after many years, returns to his hometown to attend his mother's funeral. Planning to remain only a few days, he is drawn into the tragic legacy of his childhood friend and beautiful girl next door, Eden Close. One hot night, Andrew was awakened by gunshots and piercing screams from the next farm: Mr. Close had been killed and Eden blinded. Now, seventeen years later, Andrew begins to uncover the grisly story - to unravel the layers of thwarted love between the husband, wife, and tormented girl. And as the truth about Eden's past comes to light, so too does Andrew's strange and binding attachment to her reveal itself.

House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus
To Kathy and Behrani and Kathy, they house they both want to live in represents more than a place to live. Their dreams are wrapped up in the struggle each of them has to own and possess it. As each of them fights to claim ownership, the story builds to its inevitable clash and tragedy.


The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne
Bored and lonely after his family moves from Berlin to a place called "Out-With" in 1942, Bruno, the son of a Nazi officer, befriends a boy in striped pajamas who lives behind a wire fence.


The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
On her way home from school on a snowy December day in 1973, 14-year-old Susie Salmon is lured into a makeshift underground den in a cornfield and brutally raped and murdered, the latest victim of a serial killer--the man she knew as her neighbor, Mr. Harvey.

-KF