Set Me Free - Hardcover

Beverly-Whittemore, Miranda

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0446533319 ISBN 13: 9780446533317

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing, 2007

Synopsis

Elliot Barrow is a man of ideals. The founder of Ponderosa Academy, a school for Native Americans, he is a paragon of virtue. But when he is critically injured in a horrific fire, his family, colleagues, and friends begin to unravel the devastating catastrophe at the heart of his life.

SET ME FREE is full of those who love Elliot: Amelia, his sixteen-year-old daughter, who has never imagined the violent, tragic truth behind the legacy of her dead mother; Helen, Elliot?s first wife, visiting the academy to direct a production of The Tempest; and Cal, Elliot?s closest friend and bitterest rival. Then there is the matter of Willa Llewelyn, hurtling across the country in a wheezing Volvo. She has never heard of Ponderosa Academy or Elliot Barrow. But she is vital to the great, beguiling mystery haunting Amelia, Helen, and Cal.

In its frank depictions of friendship, fatherhood, race, class, love, and devastation, SET ME FREE is moving, incisive, and above all, wise.

About this title

About the Author

MIRANDA BEVERLY-WHITTEMORE lives in Brooklyn, New York.

From Publishers Weekly

Secrets are unveiled and histories explored in Beverly-Whittemore's sophomore novel that follows the small mélange of family and friends surrounding Elliott Barrow, the idealist founder of a school for Native American children. The book's frequently narrated by Cal Fleecing, a Native American who returned to his Oregon reservation after failing to complete his Harvard graduate coursework 17 years earlier. He meets Elliot on the reservation and helps him set up Ponderosa Academy, Elliot's dream school, in Stolen, Ore. But off the record, and to the reader, Cal's jealous of Elliot's charisma and annoyed at his optimism, feelings somewhat shared by Elliot's 17-year-old daughter, Amelia, returned home from a Portland conservatory, and Elliot's first wife, Helen Bernstein, a New York City theater director recruited by Elliot to direct a student production of The Tempest. In a separate plot set seven months ahead of Helen's arrival in Stolen, 17-year-old Willa Llewlyn is being driven across country from Connecticut by her father, Nat, to meet Elliot for reasons Nat'sreluctant to make clear. Though the hidden connections between characters aren't exactly surprising, the allusions to Shakespeare and shifts in time and perspective make for an intriguing read. (Mar.)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0446533319
• ISBN 13: 9780446533317
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368