The Last Boy » (Reprint)

Robert Lieberman, the bestselling author of Baby, as well as six other novels, has been called a "talented storyteller" by Kirkus Reviews. Now, Robert joins Sourcebooks Landmark with his stunning new novel, The Last Boy.

A spiritual thriller, this utterly compelling novel tells the story of Danny Driscoll, a huggable, enchanting five-year-old boy who one day disappears from his nursery school in Ithaca, New York. Molly, his distraught single mother, begins the feverish search for her missing son. She is aided by Lou Tripoli, a divorced, street-wise cop, with whom she begins to fall in love.

As the search stretches on for months, and hope begins to fade, a miracle occurs as little Danny Driscoll comes marching down the streets of his hometown. However, he comes back changed, mature and wise in a way that seems almost impossible for his young age. As Molly and Tripoli search for answers, the townspeople begin to notice a change in Danny, and soon discover that he returns with a message-one that offers a new hope for all of mankind.

Publishers Weekly

The first half of Lieberman's ecothriller is a taut police procedural. When single mother Molly Driscoll's five-year-old, Danny, goes missing apparently abducted from his day-care center streetwise investigator Lou Tripoli jumps on the case and, with Molly, exhausts every lead in the search for the boy. As the days stretch into weeks, and weeks into months, the detective eventually comes to occupy an important place in Molly's affections. So far, so good. But the second half of the book lurches toward the eco-weird: Danny miraculously returns, unharmed but utterly changed. In fact, he's become abrasive and all-too-wise for his years, preferring to wear his hair long, to eat vegetarian and to "listen to the firmament" which helps him predict weather on the measure of biblical prophesy. Ever so slowly, Danny emerges as a spiritual leader; meanwhile, Tripoli begins to understand that the boy is trying to deliver the simplistic (if not unconvincing) message that "[w]e were all too busy, life was too noisy for us to listen. To listen to each other, to the natural world around us... to listen to our own hearts." At 500 pages, some readers may find that the novel grows a bit tedious and not only because the narrative moves at a glacial pace and the conclusion is glowingly idealistic. But despite the heavy-handed message, and the unflinchingly straightforward voices Lieberman (Baby) gives his characters, the narrative remains interesting and readable due to the author's skill with language and his ability to engineer suspense and slow-release tension. Agent, Liza Dawson. (Mar.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.