Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet - Hardcover

Proulx, Joanne

3.58

615 ratings by Goodreads

9780670066681: Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670066680 ISBN 13: 9780670066681

Publisher: Viking, 2007

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“Stan,” I said, and I said it kind of loud so of course he had to look up. “Tomorrow morning: 8:37. The red van with the out-of-state plates? You go head to head. You lose. You die.”

After freakishly foretelling the death of a friend, Luke Hunter becomes big news in Stokum, his rank little pinprick of a hometown. Terrified, but pretending not to be, Luke holds everyone—the local media, his buddy Fang, the Polish widow next door—at arm’s length as he lurches through a personal minefield studded with previously unconsidered existential ponderings, Christian fundamentalists, a missing teen’s frantic mother, and a dream girl who isn’t his.

Hormonal and funny, exhilarating and wise, Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet slyly explores the need to belong, the isolation of youth, and the powerful brew of fear and truth, music and noise, that plays inside us all.

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About the Author:

Joanne Proulx has had short stories published in literary magazines on both sides of the Atlantic, including Exile and Upstairs at Duroc. Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet is her first novel. She lives in Ottawa, Canada.

From Publishers Weekly:

A teenager's gift of premonition becomes a curse in Proulx's confident debut. It's the fall of 2002 in Stokum, Mich., a rank little pinprick of a town, where a night of pot smoking brings about Luke Hunter's prediction that his friend Stan will be crushed by a red van with out-of-state license plates. When the random prophecy comes true, a media madhouse infiltrates Luke's quiet life while his parents remain confused and frustrated. Dubbed the Prophet of Death, Luke experiences more death flashes that become reality. Terrified by his new ability, Luke gets a prescription for a powerful sedative, which stops the visions for a while, but soon they—and his general disillusionment with life—return. As Luke tries to make peace with his psychic abilities, he crushes out on a girl at school and is the subject of an attempted religious intervention. Though a couple of plot points are left unexplained or unresolved, Proulx channels the ennui, insecurity and inner yearnings of a teenage boy to produce a fast-moving tale of struggling youth that has a great potential for YA crossover. (Apr.)
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