Hawkes Harbor » (Unabridged, 6 CDs, 6 hours)

The legendary author of The Outsiders (1967), That Was Then This Is Now (1971), Rumble Fish (1975), Tex (1979), S.E. Hinton is acclaimed as one of the most provocative, best known and best selling young adult authors of all time. More than thirty years after its publication The Outsiders continues to appear on such bestseller lists as USA Today. And in PW's recently published "All-Time Bestelling Children's Books" (paperbacks) selling over 10,000,000 copies since its first publication, The Outsiders takes the number two position flanked by E.B. White's Charlotte's Web in first position and Judy Blume's Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing in third. Hinton's gritty and powerful novels have also inspired four major motion pictures. She lives in her home town of Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Dr. Phillip McDevitt, director of Terrace View Asylum, is intrigued by his newest patient, a troubled young man recently transferred from the state hospital for the criminally insane. Jamie Sommers suffers from depression, partial amnesia, and an unaccountable fear of the dark. Dr. McDevitt is determined to help Jamie conquer his demons, but the more he probes the young man’s fractured memories, the stranger his case becomes....

An orphan and a bastard, Jamie grew up tough enough to handle almost anything. Taking to the sea, he found danger and adventure in exotic ports all over the world. He’s survived foreign prisons, smugglers, pirates, gunrunners, and even a shark attack. But what he discovered in the quiet seaside town of Hawkes Harbor, Delaware, was enough to drive him almost insane - and change his life forever.

Hawkes Harbor is a compelling and unpredictable new novel by one of America’s most honored storytellers.

Publishers Weekly

Erasing age and genre barriers, prize-winning, bestselling YA author Hinton turns out a dark, funny, scary, suspenseful tale that will entertain mainstream and adventure/horror readers alike. Jamie Sommers is orphaned at the age of eight in 1950 and sent to live with some nasty nuns until graduating as a troubled young man to a life at sea. After surviving a number of life-threatening adventures in exotic ports, he ends up in the small town of Hawkes Harbor on the Delaware coast, where he stumbles into a situation so dire his entire life is changed in a manner of minutes. His new employer, the mysterious Grenville Hawke, lord of Hawkes Hall, known to Jamie as It, the Thing and the Vampire, almost kills Jamie, then goes on to enslave him for years to come. Moving back and forth through time, Hinton twists and shapes her bleak material until the story and the reader's expectations have been turned upside down. This is an adult novel, meaning that Hinton gets to write sex scenes and use the word fuck when she wants to, but the basic elements that made her 30-year-old book The Outsiders a long-time bestseller are present in this rousing read. This is a contemporary Treasure Island with a genre-bending twist. Agent, Elizabeth Harding at Curtis Brown. (Sept.) Forecast: Booksellers should have success hand-selling to grown-up Hinton fans; older YA readers will enjoy the novel, too. With sufficient promo and word of mouth, this could hit national lists. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.