ALEX GEORGE

From the author of the lyrical and compelling (USA Today) novel A Good American comes a powerful story of two friends and the unintended consequences of friendship, loss, and hope. For Robert Carter, life in his coastal Maine hometown is comfortably predictable. But in 1976, on his first day of eighth grade, he meets Nathan Tilly, who changes everything. Nathan is confident, fearless, impetuousand fascinated by kites and flying. Robert and Nathans budding friendship is forged in the crucible of two family tragedies, and as the boys struggle to come to terms with loss, they take summer jobs at the local rundown amusement park. Its there that Nathans boundless capacity for optimism threatens to overwhelm them both, and where they learn some harsh truths about family, desire, and revenge. Unforgettable and heart-breaking, Setting Free the Kites is a poignant and moving exploration of the pain, joy, and glories of young friendship. From the Hardcover edition.

The new novel from the US editor of The Help and The Postmistress - Alex George's A Good American is a positive and uplifting novel about the American Dream. Germany, 1904: When Frederick and Jette must flee her disapproving mother, where better to go than America, the land of the new? Originally set to board a boat to New York, at the last minute they take one destined for New Orleans, and later find themselves, more by chance than by design, in the small town of Beatrice, Missouri. Not speaking a word of English, they embark on their new life together.

1904, Hanover, Alemania. Frederick y Jette se conocen una tarde de primavera. Frederick posee el don de la música y Jette una sensibilidad especial para apreciar una delicada melodía. Por eso, al escuchar en boca de Frederick a Puccini, enseguida reconoce al hombre desu vida. Al quedarse embarazada, y ante la rotunda desaprobacion de su madre, deciden huir juntos a America en busca de una nueva vida. Sin hablar una palabra de ingles, se establecen en Beatrice, Misuri, donde conocen a extraordinarios personajes que los ayudaran a salir adelante. Una saga familiar epica, conmovedora y universal, que narra la vida de cuatro generaciones.

"A LIBRARY JOURNAL BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR A BOOKPAGE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR Everything he'd seen had been unimaginably different from the dry, dour streets of home, and to his surprise he was not sorry in the slightest. He was smitten by the beguiling otherness of it all."" ""And so began my grandfather's rapturous love affair with America--an affair that would continue until the day he died." This is the story of the Meisenheimer family, told by James, a third-generation American living in Beatrice, Missouri. It's where his German grandparents--Frederick and Jette--found themselves after journeying across the turbulent Atlantic, fording the flood-swollen Mississippi, and being brought to a sudden halt by the broken water of the pregnant Jette. "A Good American "tells of Jette's dogged determination to feed a town sauerkraut "and" soul food; the loves and losses of her children, Joseph and Rosa; and the precocious voices of James and his brothers, sometimes raised in discord...sometimes in perfect harmony. But above all, "A Good American "is about the music in Frederick's heart, a song that began as an aria, was jazzed by ragtime, and became an anthem of love for his adopted country that the family still hears to this day.