Joseph Olshan

"Houghton High School was fundamentally divided, like the town, into Jewish and Italian-American factions. Being Jewish, Daniel seemed to have a foot in both camps. He spoke Italian with Angela, the mother of his friend Gianni Scaravento, heart-throb quarterback of the Houghton team. Though she was gravely ill, Angela somehow seemed to fortify her family, while Daniel's own grew more anemic. "Your mother and I are both ailing," she tried to explain. "We're both doing something neither of our families can understand. Jewish, Italian. We're good mothers. We're bad mothers."

Excerpt:
"The slaughter of helpless zoo animals is a misdeed difficult to forget. When it occurred one night at the children's park in Houghton, the news was picked up by several wire services and transmitted all over the world. Some hoodlums had hurdled the Cyclone fence that surrounded the small verdant park and, with a wire cutter, had clipped the diamond mesh of metal that protected the animals. Using blunt kitchen knives, they massacred frightened lambs, chased down and decapitated two dozen chickens and cut open the soft bellies of rabbits. Although the culprits had yet to be identified, the high school students whispered among themselves that the Polanno brothers were responsible for the crime."

"Authentically moving."
Newsweek

"Compelling."
New York Times Book Review

"Olshan writes prose that sings."
Los Angeles Times