In Lost Boys, an acknowledged master storyteller weaves a powerful,
uplifting tale of loss and redemption around an ordinary American
family's bittersweet triumph over a welter of dark forces, both natural
and supernatural. Step Fletcher, his wife, DeAnne, and their three
children move to Steuben, North Carolina, thinking - hoping - it might
be just the right place for them. Its traditional values coincide with
theirs, and Step has the promise of a good job at a hot software
company. But Steuben is definitely not right for their oldest child,
eight-year-old Stevie. Introspective even in the most comfortable
surroundings, Stevie becomes progressively more withdrawn from this
alien place. Soon he is animated only by computer games and a troop of
fictitious playmates. The Fletchers' concern for Stevie turns to terror
when they discover that other young boys have disappeared from Steuben -
and someone seems to be stalking Stevie. As they struggle to keep their
son from joining the "lost boys, " the Fletchers battle a bevy of more
conventional torments as well. Their new house is an insect-ridden
matchbox dependent on the attentions of an eccentric old handyman. Step
seems to be the only sane man at his snake pit of a job. DeAnne must
acclimate herself and the three children to a new world while she is
hugely pregnant with a fourth. A woman at their church believes God has
given her an insight into Stevie's best interests that his parents lack.
Evil hides in myriad mundane corners, threatening the Fletchers and
their children. One of these threats, or maybe all of them, or maybe
something else besides, may take Stevie away. But, though evil is all
around them, goodness is within them, andthat goodness will bind them
together with a strength no force can break. Orson Scott Card's
forthright, moving prose, his remarkable gift for chronicling everyday
tragedies and triumphs, and his uncanny ability to conjure up emotions -
his characters' and his readers' - all blend t
