Take Me With You - Softcover

Hyde, Catherine Ryan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1477820019 ISBN 13: 9781477820018

Publisher: Lake Union Publishing, 2014

Synopsis

New York Times bestselling author Catherine Ryan Hyde tells the emotional story of an alcoholic reeling from the loss of his son on the journey to finally facing his pain—and forging a path to redemption.

August Shroeder, a burned-out teacher, has been sober since his nineteen-year-old son died. Every year he’s spent the summer on the road, but making it to Yellowstone this year means everything. The plan had been to travel there with his son, but now August is making the trip with Philip’s ashes instead. An unexpected twist of fate lands August with two extra passengers for his journey, two half-orphans with nowhere else to go.

What none of them could have known was how transformative both the trip—and the bonds that develop between them—would prove, driving each to create a new destiny together.

About this title

About the Author:

Catherine Ryan Hyde is the author of thirty-three published books. Her bestselling 1999 novel, Pay It Forward, adapted into a major Warner Bros. motion picture, made the American Library Association’s Best Books for Young Adults list and was translated into more than two dozen languages for distribution in more than thirty countries. Her novels Becoming Chloe and Jumpstart the World were included on the ALA’s Rainbow List; Jumpstart the World was also a finalist for two Lambda Literary Awards and won Rainbow Awards in two categories. The Language of Hoofbeats won a Rainbow Award. More than fifty of her short stories have been published in many journals, including the Antioch Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, the Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, and the Sun, and in the anthologies Santa Barbara Stories and California Shorts, as well as the bestselling anthology Dog Is My Co-Pilot. Her short fiction received honorable mention in the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest, a second-place win for the Tobias Wolff Award, and nominations for Best American Short Stories, the O. Henry Award, and the Pushcart Prize. Three have also been cited in Best American Short Stories.

Hyde is the founder and former president of the Pay It Forward Foundation. As a professional public speaker, she has addressed the National Conference on Education, twice spoken at Cornell University, met with AmeriCorps members at the White House, and shared a dais with Bill Clinton. An avid equestrian, photographer, and traveler, she lives in California.

From Kirkus Reviews:

Hyde’s followers, who love the warmth and inspiration they draw from her work (Walk Me Home, 2013, etc.), won’t be disappointed by this latest effort.

August is on his way to Yellowstone to go camping, but his RV has broken down, leaving him and his small part–Jack Russell terrier, Woody, stranded in a one-horse desert town. While the mechanic, Wes, works on the vehicle, the science teacher frets that he won’t have enough money to make it to the park. He’s not going for pleasure, although that was the original purpose of the trip; instead, he’s transporting some of his son’s ashes so he can sprinkle them around the park. He and Phillip, who was killed in the car accident that led to the breakup of August’s marriage, had planned the trip together. Now it seems as though the RV’s engine repairs will eat up most of his cash. Then Wes makes August an offer he can’t refuse: Finish your trip, but! take my two boys with you, and I won’t charge you anything. The boys, 12-year-old Seth, and Henry, 7, will go into the foster system if Wes, who's scheduled to serve 90 days in jail, can’t find an alternative. August refuses but finally relents, and what follows is a lifelong bond among a recovering alcoholic, a wise young boy who's been forced to play the grown-up since his mom walked out, and sweet but silent Henry. Hyde’s books can be almost relentlessly uplifting, but in her case, that’s not a bad thing. She does it well and manages to avoid bringing religion, schmaltz, or improbable outcomes into the mix, instead relying on crisp, clean prose and a straightforward method of storytelling that has its own unique appeal.

A story about good people doing their best to survive, combined with a message that will cause readers to close the book feeling a bit more hopeful about humanity.

About this edition

• Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 1477820019
• ISBN 13: 9781477820018
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 362