Paperback

Currently not available.

Request this book

About the Book

Product Description

It is 1970. 'Bean' Holladay is twelve and her sister Liz fifteen when their artistic mother Charlotte, a woman who 'flees every place she's ever lived at the first sign of trouble', takes off to 'find herself'. She leaves the girls enough money for food to last a month or two. But when Bean gets home from school one day and sees a police car outside the house, she and Liz board a bus from California to Virginia, where their widowed Uncle Tinsley lives in the decaying antebellum mansion that has been in the family for generations.

Review

Jeannette Walls jumps off the memoir train and hitches a ride on the novel form with The Silver Star". --Elissa Schappell "Vanity Fair "

Jeannette Walls transports us with her powerful storytelling Using Bean s expertly crafted, naively stubborn voice, Walls contemplates the extraordinary bravery needed to confront real-life demons in a world where the hardest thing to do may be to not run away. --Abbe Wright "O, the Oprah magazine "

Walls writes with equal tenderness for her most beloved characters and the least among them. It takes a compassionate soul to find the beauty in despair and that s what Walls does best. --Amy MacKinnon "The Patriot Ledger "

Walls is adept at steeping her characters in some intense, old-fashioned drama The Silver Star" is a lovely, moving novel with an appealing narrator in Bean. --Carmela Ciuraru "USA Today "

At heart Walls is a wonderful yarn-spinner This is a page-turner, built for hammock or beach reading. --Karen Valby "Entertainment Weekly "

Walls writes with the paired-down incisiveness of a memoirist looking for the significance of every incident, but it s the way she draws Bean, so strong even in the face of all the additional challenges that come with her age, gender, and innocence, that will make this book a hit with readers. --Nicholas Mancusi "The Daily Beast "

["The Silver Star" is] an examination of bad parenting and resilient children in a rich and complex setting. Bean is a compelling character, and it is fascinating to watch her ideas about both her mother and her sister change as the book progresses. --Sarah Rachel Egelman "Bookreporter.com "

Walls writing is lively and her dialogue crips, and the girls struggles with their mother ring true. --Margaret Quamme "The Columbus Dispatch "

Jeannette Walls is a master at her craft. In the same way she spoke candidly of her own parents shortcomings in The Glass Castle", in The Silver Star "she lends this candid voice to Bean, and captures the inner workings of an adolescent s mind perfectly .The Silver Star" stands strong as its own story, wholly unique and wholly captivating. --Kristin Fritz "EverdayEbook.com "

Great writing An absorbing, unsentimental tale of childhood. --Chelsea Cain "The New York Times Book Review "

A polished work of fiction Engaging Fans will find echoes of her coruscating family chronicle that first struck a chord with readers in 2005, but "The Silver Star" is the novel of a more confident, mature and calculating writer [an] atmospheric bildungsroman of adolescent passage, changing times and bent but unbroken family bonds. --Jane Sumner "Dallas Morning News "

A great spirit comes through The Silver Star" Jeannette Walls knows how to make characters pop off the page (and tear your heart out in the process.) --Angela Mattano "Campus Circle Magazine "

Walls has written yet another gripping story of a courageous and sensible girl surviving the adults around her."--Holly Silva "St. Louis Post-Dispatch "

"Walls writes with the paired-down incisiveness of a memoirist looking for the significance of every incident, but it's the way she draws Bean, so strong even in the face of all the additional challenges that come with her age, gender, and innocence, that will make this book a hit with readers."--Nicholas Mancusi "The Daily Beast "

"At heart Walls is a wonderful yarn-spinner...This is a page-turner, built for hammock or beach reading."--Karen Valby "E

All Editions

9781471129087
Paperback
ISBN13: 9781471129087
Simon & Schuster Ltd, 1994

Share Your Thoughts

Your review helps others make informed decisions

Click on a star to start your review