Early one morning in New York City, Will Heller, a sixteen-year-old paranoid schizophrenic, gets on a New York City uptown B train on a fantastic and terrifying quest to save the world.
Violet Heller, his frantic mother, is joined by Ali Lateef, a missing-persons specialist, in a desperate attempt to locate her son before psychosis claims him completely. As the stakes grow higher, Lateef gradually comes to realize that this is more than a case of a runaway teen: Will Heller has a chilling case history, and Violet, beautiful and enigmatic, harbors a secret that Lateef will discover at his own peril.
Suspenseful and comic, devastating and hopeful by turns, Lowboy is a fearless exploration of youth, sex, and violence in contemporary America, seen through one boy's haunting and extraordinary vision.
About the Author :
John Wray is the author of two critically acclaimed novels, The Right Hand of Sleep and Canaan's Tongue. He was named one of Grantamagazine's Best of Young American Novelists in 2007. The recipient of a Whiting Award, he lives in Brooklyn, New York.
Richard Powers has published thirteen novels. He is a MacArthur Fellow and received the National Book Award. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for The Overstory, and Bewilderment was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
Review :
"A breathtaking journey through the subway tunnels of Manhattan and the subterranean fantasies of a schizophrenic teen...[and] the twists and turns of the human psyche."
-- "O, The Oprah Magazine"
"Narrator Paul Michael Garcia sounds involved from the very beginning of this story and never allows even the slightest moment of it to slip away from him. As the troubled youth, Will, Garcia delivers a transcendent performance that will be deeply affecting to listeners...Winner of an AudioFile Earphones Award."
-- "AudioFile"
"What's most seductive for me about John Wray's third novel--and arguably the one that puts him squarely on the map alongside contemporary luminaries like Joseph O'Neill, Jonathan Lethem, and Junot Diaz--is how skillfully it explores the mind's mysterious terrain...Wray invokes all the classic elements of a mystery in the telling, and that's what makes this novel such a searing read...This kind of pacing is the stuff we crave--the kind that draws you in so unawares that before you know it, it's past midnight and you're down to the last page."
-- "Amazon.com"
"Wray's third novel, Lowboy, is uncompromising, often gripping and generally excellent...Wray deftly takes readers in and out of the psyche of what they will learn is a paranoid schizophrenic teenager...One of the novel's many pleasures is just going along: putting yourself fully in the hands of the story and its author...This is a meticulously constructed novel, immensely satisfying in the perfect, precise beat of its plot."
-- "New York Times Book Review"
"Wray's captivating third novel drifts between psychological realities while exploring the narrative poetics of schizophrenia...Wray deploys brilliant hallucinatory visuals, including chilling descriptions of the subway system and an imaginary river flowing beneath Manhattan. In his previous works, Wray has shown that he's not a stranger to dark themes, and with this tightly wound novel, he reaches new heights."
-- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)"
