The One-In-A-Million Boy - Softcover

Wood, Monica

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0544947215 ISBN 13: 9780544947214

Publisher: Mariner Books, 2017

Synopsis

The story of your life never starts at the beginning. Don't they teach you anything at school?

So says 104-year-old Ona to the 11-year-old boy who's been sent to help her out every Saturday morning. As he refills the bird feeders and tidies the garden shed, Ona tells him about her long life, from first love to second chances. Soon she's confessing secrets she has kept hidden for decades.

One Saturday, the boy doesn't show up. Ona starts to think he's not so special after all, but then his father arrives on her doorstep, determined to finish his son's good deed. The boy's mother is not so far behind. Ona is set to discover that the world can surprise us at any age, and that sometimes sharing a loss is the only way to find ourselves again.
 
“Readers won’t be able to resist falling for Ona ... The conclusion will leave them smiling through their tears.”—Shelf Awareness

“Poignant ... There is much to enjoy in this heartfelt tale of love, loss, and friendship.”—Express

“A must-read book ... Whimsical and bittersweet.”—Good Housekeeping

About this title

From the Author

MONICA WOOD is the author of When We Were the Kennedys and several novels, including Any Bitter Thing, a national bestseller. Her writing has appeared in O, The Oprah Magazine, the New York Times, and many other publications. She lives in Portland, Maine.

From the Inside Flap

The incandescent story of a 104-year-old woman and the sweet, strange young boy assigned to help her around the house — a friendship that touches each member of the boy’s unmoored family.
 
For years, guitarist Quinn Porter has been on the road, chasing gig after gig, largely absent to his twice ex-wife Belle and their odd, acutely observant eleven-year-old son, who is obsessed with Guinness World Records. When the boy dies suddenly, Quinn seeks forgiveness for his paternal shortcomings by completing the requirements for his son’s unfinished Boy Scout badge.
 
For seven Saturdays, Quinn does yard work for Ona Vitkus, the spry, 104-year-old Lithuanian immigrant the boy had visited weekly. Quinn soon discovers that the boy had talked Ona into gunning for the world record for Oldest Licensed Driver — and that’s the least of her secrets. Despite himself, Quinn picks up where the boy left off, forging a friendship with Ona that allows him to know the son he never understood: a boy who was always listening, always learning.
 
The One-in-a-Million Boy is a richly layered novel of very real hearts broken seemingly beyond repair and yet still within reach of a stunning act of human devotion.
 

About this edition

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0544947215
• ISBN 13: 9780544947214
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336