The Outside Boy

A poignant, coming of age novel about an Irish gypsy boy's childhood in the 1950's from the national bestselling author of A Rip in Heaven and American Dirt.

Ireland, 1959 Young Christopher Hurley is a tinker, a Pavee gypsy, who roams with his father and extended family from town to town, carrying all their worldly possessions in their wagons. Christy carries with him a burden of guilt as well, haunted by the story of his mother's death in childbirth.

The wandering life is the only one Christy has ever known, but when his grandfather dies, everything changes. His father decides to settle briefly, in a town, where Christy and his cousin can receive proper schooling and prepare for their first communions. But still, always, they are treated as outsiders.

As Christy struggles to find his way amid the more conventional lives of his new classmates, he starts to question who he is and where he belongs. But then the discovery of an old newspaper photograph, and a long-buried secret from his mother's mysterious past, changes his life forever....

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Berkley Books
Published: 06/01/2010
ISBN: 9780451229489
Pages: 384
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 8.10h x 5.40w x 1.00d

Review Citations: Kirkus Reviews 04/15/2010
Booklist 05/15/2010 pg. 22
Booklist Ed Choice Adu Bk YA's 01/01/2011 pg. 10