The Toothache Tree - Softcover

Galloway, Jack

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0595162215 ISBN 13: 9780595162215

Publisher: iUniverse, 2001

Synopsis

And so the legend goes that if you break the skin of another with the barb of a toothache tree, you will capture his spirit. And the two spiritsyour two soulswill live forever . . . as one.That ancient Indian legend achieves a sense of modern-day truth for a man down on his luck and a teenaged boy, a rich kid who has every advantage that life can offer; but hes missing one major ingredient: the love and companionship of a father. It was only a simple kidnapping for ransom, until the lives of the kidnapper and his captive become inexorably intertwined amid the splendor, the mystery, the unbridled fun and the harsh realities of the Big Thicket woods in East Texas . . . where sunrise turns morning ground fog into a pink cloud. Where coyotes howl and a cougar roams. Where intense hostility transmutes into warmth and trust in a pair of hearts that were once achingly empty. But Mother Nature, a stringent Society, and a dogging FBI will not let up on them.Initially printed by St. Martins Press, The Toothache Tree was also a selection of the Readers Digest Condensed Book Club.

About this title

About the Author

Jack Galloway is a native Texan who knows and loves the outdoors, especially the legendary East Texas Big Thicket woods, where much of this book is set. Both a writer and photographer, his career spanned journalism and professional communications before turning his attention to the novel. This is his first.

From School Library Journal

YA-- Kidnapped from his select Houston prep school, 15-year-old Hamilton Caine, Jr. assumes that death or mutilation are close at hand. Just the opposite happens. His captor, Bill, who takes him to a trailer hideaway in the east Texas woods of the Big Thicket, turns out to be a man whom Ham admires, a man who teaches him how to build a fire, skin a squirrel, and hunt for deer. Because Ham's parents are away on a cruise, their time together is prolonged. The camaraderie between the boy and the man grows, meeting Ham's long unmet need for fatherly friendship and involvement. Like that barb of the toothache tree, which Indian legend says has the power to make two souls live together as one, their connection pierces deeply. Filled with action, including a dramatic flood scene in which the two are separated and another in which Ham's life is threatened by a snake bite, this novel delivers an old-fashioned wallop of adventure and suspense. Even more crucial to the novel's success is the substantial emotional growth of its characters, strong testament of the bonds between men. A likely candidate for booktalks. --Keddy Outlaw, Harris County Public Library, Houston
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: iUniverse
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0595162215
• ISBN 13: 9780595162215
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 364