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Where Things Come Back
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Where Things Come Back (2011) (edit title/settings)

by John Corey Whaley (Author) (edit contributors)

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Just when seventeen-year-old Cullen Witter thinks he understands everything about his small and painfully dull Arkansas town, it all disappears. . . . In the summer before Cullen's junior year, a nominally-depressed birdwatcher named John Barling thinks he spots the ivory-billed woodpecker--a... read more

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Publication Date: May 3, 2011
Just when seventeen-year-old Cullen Witter thinks he understands everything about his small and painfully dull Arkansas town, it all disappears. . . .

In the summer before Cullen's senior year, a nominally-depressed birdwatcher named John Barling thinks... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Publication Date: May 3, 2011
Just when seventeen-year-old Cullen Witter thinks he understands everything about his small and painfully dull Arkansas town, it all disappears. . . .

In the summer before Cullen's senior year, a nominally-depressed birdwatcher named John Barling thinks he spots a species of woodpecker thought to be extinct since the 1940s in Lily, Arkansas. His rediscovery of the so-called Lazarus Woodpecker sparks a flurry of press and woodpecker-mania. Soon all the kids are getting woodpecker haircuts and everyone's eating "Lazarus burgers." But as absurd as the town's carnival atmosphere has become, nothing is more startling than the realization that Cullen’s sensitive, gifted fifteen-year-old brother Gabriel has suddenly and inexplicably disappeared.

While Cullen navigates his way through a summer of finding and losing love, holding his fragile family together, and muddling his way into adulthood, a young missionary in Africa, who has lost his faith, is searching for any semblance of meaning wherever he can find it. As distant as the two stories seem at the start, they are thoughtfully woven ever closer together and through masterful plotting, brought face to face in a surprising and harrowing climax.

Complex but truly extraordinary, tinged with melancholy and regret, comedy and absurdity, this novel finds wonder in the ordinary and emerges as ultimately hopeful. It's about a lot more than what Cullen calls, “that damn bird.” It’s about the dream of second chances.

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “I understand that everyone who lives anywhere can be expected to have an accent, especially those of us down here in the South, but honestly, hearing her voice made me ashamed to be human, much less southern.”
    Cullen Witter

Setting & Locations edit see section history

First Sentence edit see section history

I was seventeen years old when I saw my first dead body.

Table of Contents edit see section history

1. All the Idealism in the World Couldn't Shake This Feeling
2. Mysterious Kids with Shovels
3. Take Me to the End of the World
4. The Book of Enoch
5. Love the Bird
6. Benton Sage
7. Neighbors
8. The Tower Above the Earth
9. In Defense of Irrationality
10. Cabot Searcy
11. Vilonia Kline
12. The Watchers
13. The Simplest Thing in the World
14. Alma Ember and Her Small-Town Ways
15. Aunt Julia and the Love Parade
16. The Place Where Things Go Away
17. This May be the End of the World
18. You Couldn't Find a Nicer Guy If You Tried
19. A Lavish Journey
20. The Boy Who Caused Silence
21. The Meaning of This is Not to Save You

Themes & Symbolism edit see section history

  • Character names: A majority of characters names are towns in Arkansas. Some first and last names are both place names. Does this have any significance or is the author being cute or lazy?

Series & Lists edit see section history

This book is in Publishers Weekly Best Books of 2011. (authoritative list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. John Corey Whaley (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Add the publisher.
Country: Add the country of publication.
Publication Date: 2011
ISBN: Add the ISBN.
Page Count: 240

Notes for Parents edit see section history

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Some mild cursing. Character sleeps with a few women but nothing graphic is revealed.

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