Parnucklian for Chocolate

By: B.H. James

Narrated by: Andrew Farrier

Length: 7 hrs and 55 mins

Publisher's summary

As a small child, Josiah believed his father's absence could be explained by the simple fact he was a high-ranking alien official on the planet Parnuckle. It explained so much else, too, like why Josiah should eat nothing but chocolate (Parnucklians eat nothing but chocolate), and why he should be proud of and idolize his father, the keymaster of Gozer, even though they'd never met.

But as time goes on and the gaps in this mythology widen, Josiah is faced with two possibilities: Either it's all very real, or it's all very pretend.

This betrayal comes into sharper focus when three weeks before his 16th birthday, Josiah is released back into his mother's care after two years in a group home. His mother is about to marry Johnson Davis, and when Josiah, his mother, Johnson Davis, and his daughter Bree Davis - a prematurely mature girl with her own history of parental betrayal - attempt to live together as an all-American nuclear family, the myths underpinning all their lives come chaotically and absurdly unspooled.

In Parnucklian for Chocolate, B.H. James has taken the alien heart of family life and made it recognizable and relatable to all - extraterrestrial or otherwise.

©2011 Red Hen Press (P)2018 Red Hen Press

Brilliant.

I’ve already read this smart, brilliant book, loved it, and was thrilled to see it as a audio book. The narrator gave it such beautiful, new depth.