Walking Backward
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Twelve-year-old Josh is left alone to find the answers. His father is building a time machine. His four-year-old brother's closest friend is a plastic Power Ranger. His psychiatrist offers nothing more than a blank journal and platitudes. Isolated by grief in a home where every day is pajama day, Josh makes death his research project. He tests the mourning practices of religions he doesn't believe in. He tries to mend his little brother's shattered heart. He observes, records and waitsβfor his life to feel normal, for his mother's death to make sense, for his father to come out of the basement.
His observations, recorded in a series of journal entries, are funny, smart, insightfulβand heartbreaking. His conclusions about the nature of love, loss, grief and the space-time continuum are nothing less than life-changing.
ααΆαααΆααααααΆα αα·αααα·ααΆαααααα
α’αααΈβα’ααααα·αααα
Catherine Austen worked in the conservation movement before becoming a freelance writer. She lives in Quebec with her husband, Geoff, and their children.Her novels with Orca include Walking Backward and All Good Children.
