An often hilarious and always relevant memoir about one teen boy's
battle with brain cancer and his Starlight Children's Foundation wish:
to meet Mikhail Gorbachev in Russia and plead for nuclear disarmament
and world peace.
It's 1986, and Jeff is an average fifteen-year-old: he thinks a lot
about dating, he bounces around with his friends, and he's trying his
hardest to get a car. Conversely, the world around him feels crazy: the
United States and the Soviet Union are at glaring odds, with their
leaders in a standoff, and that awful word, nuclear, is on everyone's
mind. Then, boom--Jeff learns that he has brain cancer and it's likely
terminal. Well, that puts a damper on his summer plans and romantic
prospects, doesn't it?
Jeff's family rallies around him, but they are fiercely
complicated--especially Jeff's father, a man who can't say I love you
even during the worst of Jeff's treatment. So when the Starlight
Children's Foundation offers to grant Jeff a wish, he makes one certain
to earn his father's respect: he asks to travel to Moscow and meet with
Mikhail Gorbachev to discuss nuclear disarmament and ending the Cold
War. Nothing like achieving world peace to impress a distant father,
right? Jeff has always been one to aim high.
Jeff's story is dark, but it's also funny, romantic, and surprising. As
his life swings from incredibly ordinary to absolutely incredible, he
grapples with the big questions of mortality, war, love, hope, and
miracles.
A sweet but unsentimental account of a truly fascinating nuclear
childhood. Henigson had me at 'Gorbachev.' --Gary Shteyngart, New York
Times bestselling author of Little Failure and Lake Success
It's a tale well-told--always gripping, often heartbreaking, and
ultimately uplifting. --Booklist
