Boy's Life

About this book

An Alabama boy's innocence is shaken by murder and madness in the 1960s South in this novel by the New York Times–bestselling author of Swan Song. It's 1964 in idyllic Zephyr, Alabama. People either work for the paper mill up the Tecumseh River, or for the local dairy. It's a simple life, but it stirs the impressionable imagination of twelve-year-old aspiring writer Cory Mackenson. He's certain he's sensed spirits whispering in the churchyard. He's heard of the weird bootleggers who lurk in the dark outside of town. He's seen a flood leave Main Street crawling with snakes. Cory thrills to all of it as only a young boy can. Then one morning, while accompanying his father on his milk route, he sees a car careen off the road and slowly sink into fathomless Saxon's Lake. His father dives into the icy water to rescue the driver, and finds a beaten corpse, naked and handcuffed to the steering wheel—a copper wire tightened around the stranger's neck. In time, the townsfolk seem to forget all