My Sunshine Away

De: M.O. Walsh

Narrado por: Kirby Heybourne

The instant New York Times best seller.

In the summer of 1989, a Baton Rouge neighborhood best known for cookouts on sweltering summer afternoons, cauldrons of spicy crawfish, and passionate football fandom, is rocked by a violent crime when 15-year-old Lindy Simpson - free spirit, track star, and belle of the block - is attacked late one evening near her home. As the dark side of this idyllic stretch of Southern suburbia is revealed, the close-knit neighborhood is irreversibly transformed.

In My Sunshine Away, M.O. Walsh brilliantly juxtaposes the enchantment of a charmed childhood with the gripping story of a violent crime, unraveling families, and consuming adolescent love. Acutely wise and deeply honest, it is an astonishing and pause-resisting debut about the meaning of family, the power of memory, and our ability to forgive.

©2015 M.O. Walsh (P)2015 Penguin Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

Named A Book of the Year by NPR, The Dallas Morning News, Kirkus Reviews, and Booklist.

An Entertainment Weekly "must list" pick.

"A tantalizing mystery and a tender coming-of-age story...Unputdownable." (Oprah.com)

Probably more interesting to Baton Rougeans.

Is there anything you would change about this book?

A bit tedious in the middle.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

Ending was satisfying.

Which scene was your favorite?

The descriptions of the neighborhoods in Baton Rouge were enjoyable because I'm from BR and obvously the author is either from or has spent time in BR. The scenes, the traditions, the streets and the stores were identifiable and familiar. The neighborhood is home for me.

Do you think My Sunshine Away needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

I do not. I think the characters are complete.

Truthful journey to manhood...raw...very real

This is a story of my city....my school....my friends....with all the little deep dark secrets I never knew. This book may be about a boy growing up and his perfect world changing before his eyes....but to me it was a story that touched my heart and soul and brought back memories of black smoke rising from my school, milk crates, parties after dances, friends I haven't seen since graduation....memories of a childhood.

The narrator does a good job. He is not perfect but he is still very good.

This book is a mystery...and a coming of age....a little dark....but it's honest. I can't wait for more from M.O. Walsh.

Worth a credit for sure!

it's a good listen

I'm not sure how I feel about it but I kept listening all the same.

Not that great

This book was kind of all over the place for me. I might even rate it 2.5. I felt like it was trying to be like "Devil in The White City" by going back and forth between stories and descriptions about the city/country and Lindy's story. But it felt too jumpy. I also thought some of the prose was long-winded and I found myself having to go back and re-read sections because I started thinking about something else. I did enjoy the end of the book.

eh...

never took off as a story :( just went on all different directions had potential but just not for me

Great read

Really good reading
I recommend this novel it's truly an original and the story has so many of life's truths.

Great story

This was One of the strongest and touching books I've read in a while. I enjoyed it from start to finish.

Rape- Understanding

Incredible insight into adolescent boy growing up and understanding his goodness as he processes the wide effects of a childhood friend's rape on his life and entire neighborhood. It also speaks to the very real trauma our children in foster care may endure when those who prey on children become the foster parent.

Remarkable Retrospective on Becoming a *True* Man

Some books are so piercing, so damn good that one hesitates to write a review, for fear that he cannot do that novel justice by failing to adequately convey the effect on him and how it caused so much self-reflection. But, here goes:

I truly love this book. It is so many things: suspenseful, literary, coming-of-age. And yet, it doesn't fit neatly into one, rather it transcends categorization. It is, most of all, a melody to the evolution of young teen into man, a man of character, of morals, and of responsibility to his children and the women in his life: a real father to his kids, a devoted husband to his wife, a caring son to his mother and a brother grateful for his sisters.

A retrospective traveling the path of progress toward manhood through the burning memories of first love, the pain of losing it, juvenile mistakes and self-doubts, going from innocence to the teen male's idolatry of sex and objectification of females, the protagonist learns life's hard lessons via a host of females and their relationships to the wrong kind of men, including his mother who was abandoned by his adulterous and absent father, his sister who had a penchant for abusive boyfriends, and his first love who was raped and struggled to move on.

This lyrical Louisiana novel was so true to me and so eloquent.

Amazing

Unbelievably compelling debut novel. Read it with my book club and we were all blown away and ended up having a great meeting. My only criticism, and it is small, is that the narrator should have had a southern accent.