The Wanderers

When eighteen-year-old Sosie Friedman's mother dies in a horrific car crash, rumors around her small beach town swirl th... (more)

When eighteen-year-old Sosie Friedman's mother dies in a horrific car crash, rumors around her small beach town swirl that the accicent was really a suicide-plot gone awry. Desperate to prove the gossipers wring, she digs into her mother's past and uncovers clues that suggest her mother wasn't who she pretended to be. In the wake of Hurricane Sandy, she connects with a school acquaintance, a quiet but thoughtful loner, who introduces her to his small group of friends. Swept into their curious world, she embarks on a road trip with them to escape Sandy's destruction -- and to discover a man who may hold clues to her mother's death. But like the shoreline under the lashing winds and rain, her reality starts disintegrating before her eyes the more she learns. When she wakes up in the aftermath of a car crash eerily reminiscent of her mother's, her new friends are nowhere to be found. Sosie must now piece together evidence to explain her mother's death, or risk suffering a similar fate. (less)

Phaks joined the anti-apartheid struggle and went into exile before his daughter Ruru was born. He never returned. Years... (more)

Phaks joined the anti-apartheid struggle and went into exile before his daughter Ruru was born. He never returned. Years later, Ruru goes to Tanzania in search of the remnants of his life. He finds it in his widow and his 'Pillow books'- journals he kept while coming to terms with his mortality. Struck by the parallels with her teenage letters to her late mother, she reads to find answers to her questions: Who was he? Why did he not return? She reads to find a sense of belonging in the world. Informed by Africa's recent history and examining its effects on ordinary family lives, this novel depicts the resilience of the people of the continent. A story of parting ways and the merging of spirits, bound by blood and undeclared immutable love, The Wanderers is an atmopheric novel that lingers unforgettably in the mind"-- (less)