Over the course of one winter in 1974, in the coal-mining town of Banning, Pennsylvania, the youngest member of a large and boisterous Eastern European family gives himself a tall order: to find his mother, who recently disappeared without explanation. Lucas, an only child whose father died several years earlier in a coa-mine blast, lives with the legacy of loss. Despite his heavy inheritance, Lucas is still just a thirteen-year-old boy puzzling out the world around him. He shuttles between the homes of his family elders whose old-world ways he can't quite understand. When Zoli, his mother's embittered admirer, takes it upon himself to find his lost love, violence and retribution escalate until no one, especially Lucas, is safe. As he struggles to find his place in this unsettling landscape, Lucas's extended family and close-knit ethnic community circle around him. Set against the collapse of the industry that has sustained the family and the town for generations, When We Get There is a startling tale of one family's long winter--and the spring that eventually comes hard on winter's heels.
When We Get There: A Novel
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle.
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
In her elegiac debut novel, Seliy explores one boy's coming-of-age over the course of a long, eventful, brutally cold winter. In 1974, 13-year-old Lucas Lessar's family lives in the shadow of one of western Pennsylvania's last remaining coal mines, King Mine in Banning. Lucas's father was killed there years ago; the mine is now about to be shuttered. As the book opens, Lucas's mother, Mirjana, who has been in "a long sleep" of grief and depression, has disappeared. Her suitor, Zoli, threatens Lucas to learn her whereabouts; anguished Lucas, who narrates, doesn't know and is protected by his close-knit extended family (of eastern European descent). Inspired mostly by his larger-than-life great-grandfather, Lucas sets out to find his mother and make her life better. He comes to recognize how loss—of his parents, but also of his immigrant family's work and ethnic identities—has shaped his life. Lucas is an authentic adolescent who, despite his anger (Zoli continues to rage, too) and taciturnity, develops empathy and transforms into a sympathetic young man. Suffused with close observations of family legends, superstitions and cultural traditions, Seliy's accomplished debut bids a bittersweet farewell to one way of life while anticipating promise down the road. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Before dying in an underground explosion, Lucas' coal-miner father had a dream: he and his son, together, would find a special place in the Allegheny Forest called Heart's Content. But now Lucas, 13, has his own quest: to find his mother, who--deeply depressed by her husband's death--has gone away, leaving the boy with his grandmother, Slats, and the stern admonition not to search for her. Might as well tell the sun not to rise in the east! But Lucas isn't the only one looking for his mother: Zoli, a possibly deranged local man, is also on her trail. All of this drama is played out before the richly textured backdrop of Lucas' huge Russian, Croatian, and Hungarian family and the small western Pennsylvania mining community they inhabit. The word lovely might well have been coined for the express purpose of describing the sensibility that informs this splendid first novel. Seliy clearly knows her characters and their world intimately and manages to re-create them with dignity, humor, and a clear-eyed appreciation of their superstitions, failings, and small triumphs. Lucas may or may not find his heart's content, but readers surely will . . . in this exquisite work of fiction. Michael Cart
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Funny, knowing, poignant...magical,
This review is from: When We Get There: A Novel (Hardcover)
This is not your typical debut. It seems almost too good to be true that a first novel could so adeptly combine a compelling plot with such beautifully rendered characters and such perfect pacing. I was drawn in completely from the first sentence--not only by the story and the wonderful narrator, Lucas, but by the richness of the world Seliy describes. The writing is infused by a balanced nostalgia, never maudlin and always leavened by a subtle sense of humor. Comparable books? The magic and sophistication of Jeffrey Eugenides's "The Virgin Suicides" comes to mind. But one of the qualities that makes this novel so dazzling is how utterly fresh it is. You've never read anything quite like it.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An absolutely beautiful story, beautifully written,
This review is from: When We Get There: A Novel (Hardcover)
I have just finished my second read of this book and loved it even more than the first time I read it. The author creates, with her fantastic use of language, such a deep sense of time and place that I walked away from this book feeling as though I knew Lucas' story (his town, his family, and his journey) as surely as I know my own. The author paints her characters and their humanness with such authentic artistry that you walk away knowing she must love them deeply to have drawn them with such magnificent detail. Her love extends, clearly, to the English language: some of the sentences in this book grabbed me with such descriptive strength that I found myself re-reading them in situ and pausing in appreciation of them. This is a novel about one boy's journey but will appeal to both men and women and even to more mature young readers.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Who says, "Nothing every happens in small towns?",
By
This review is from: When We Get There: A Novel (Hardcover)
Shauna Seliy captures the coming of age of Lucas Lessar in a small coal mining town where legend, superstition, faith, violence, real and imaginary fears, small delights, personal tragedies, loss and recovery challenge four generations of his family. This quiet, bright, observant, free-spirited, courageous narrator moves from one setting or generation to others, providing a complex narrative. The tough but always-faithful grandmother gives Lucas space to struggle with his own fears, losses, and discoveries while surrounding him with the love and tradition of family. The great grandfather's legendary strength is waning, but his wisdom and stories remain powerful. He is known for growing pears inside bottles to become wine for consolation and celebration. We see this mirrored as Lucas is nurtured, survives hardships, and matures to accept his fate.
The rich cultural tapestry of the small town inhabited by immigrant families from Eastern Europe is clearly represented in characters, stories, music, and traditions. If you grew up on a small town or wish you had, this book will resonate with you.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
