If you stumbled across a dead body, do you think you would:
a. check pulse call 911
b. scream and run away
c. pass out
I would probably barf and then pass out. But I’m confident I’d be mentally calling the authorities as I fell to the ground.😆
“The Boy and the Lake is a poignant and haunting coming-of-age story … a multifaceted, evocative and masterfully told tale.”
—Lynda Cohen Loigman, USA Today bestselling author of The Two-Family House and The Wartime Sisters
While fishing at the dock of his parents summer home in Northern NJ, Ben finds the dead body of a beloved neighbor floating in the water.
He is haunted and can’t shake the feeling that her death is suspicious. He begins to search for clues, angering his family and friends in this close-knit Jewish community, who want him to just let it go – as to not tarnish their “perfect” little corner of the world.
“Pelzman excels at creating an intensely atmospheric setting and revealing how it shapes his characters’ identities and worldviews … The narrative is full of rich, descriptive language … a well-developed vintage setting and classic but thought-provoking coming-of-age theme.”
—Kirkus Reviews
This little book packs a big punch. Rich in historical details of the 1960’s, it’s a possible murder mystery, a coming-of-age novel, has thought-provoking conversations about race, and class, and what the American Dream really means to many who have struggled to achieve it.
And that ending 🤯 a shocking twist I never saw coming!
Thank you @suzyapprovedbooktours and @adampelzman for the gifted book!
- Publisher : Jackson Heights Press (September 29, 2020)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 269 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1733258523
- ISBN-13 : 978-1733258524
About The Book:
Set against the backdrop of the Newark riots in 1967, a teenage Benjamin Baum leaves the city to spend the summer at an idyllic lake in northern New Jersey. While fishing from his grandparents’ dock, the dead body of a beloved neighbor floats to the water’s surface—a loss that shakes this Jewish community and reveals cracks in what appeared to be a perfect middle-class existence. Haunted by the sight of the woman’s corpse, Ben stubbornly searches for clues to her death, infuriating friends and family who view his unwelcome investigation as a threat to the comfortable lives they’ve built. As Ben’s suspicions mount, he’s forced to confront the terrifying possibility that his close-knit community is not what it seems to be—that, beneath a façade of prosperity and contentment, darker forces may be at work.
In The Boy and the Lake, Adam Pelzman has crafted a riveting coming-of-age story and a mystery rich in historical detail, exploring an insular world where the desperate quest for the American dream threatens to destroy both a family and a way of life.
About The Author:
Adam Pelzman was born in Seattle, raised in northern New Jersey, and has spent much of his life in New York City. He studied Russian literature at the University of Pennsylvania and received a law degree from UCLA. His first novel, Troika, was published by Penguin (Amy Einhorn Books). He is also the author of The Papaya King, which Kirkus Reviews described as “entrancing” and “deeply memorable.” The Boy and the Lake, set in New Jersey during the late 1960s, is his third novel. http://linktr.ee/adampelzman
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