"Van Booy's great triumph comes in using a family secret to underscore
the message that family is as much a choice as a blood tie. Although any
reader will find something to love here, someone who has benefited from
a perfectly imperfect family will wear the widest smile. This little
book with a big heart is suitable not just for Father's Day, but for any
day." -- Shelf Awareness
When devastating news shatters the life of six-year-old Harvey, she
finds herself in the care of a veteran social worker, Wanda, and alone
in the world save for one relative she has never met--a disabled felon,
haunted by a violent past he can't escape.
Moving between past and present, Father's Day weaves together the
story of Harvey's childhood on Long Island and her life as a young woman
in Paris. Written in raw, spare prose that personifies the characters,
this novel is the journey of two people searching for a future in the
ruin of their past.
Father's Day is a meditation on the quiet, sublime power of
compassion, and the beauty of simple, everyday things--a breakthrough
work from one of our most gifted chroniclers of the human heart.