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Back Roads
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Back Roads (2000) (edit title/settings)

by Tawni O'Dell (Author) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

Harley Altmyer's mother is in prison for killing his father. So Harley is bringing up his younger sisters and working two jobs to pay the bills-and that doesn't leave a lot of time for distractions. But lately, he's getting distracted by Callie Mercer, an older woman who fills him with such... read more

Summary edit see section history

Harley Altmyer should be in college drinking Rolling Rock and chasing girls. He should be freed from his closed-minded, stricken coal town, with its lack of jobs and no sense of humor. Instead, he's constantly reminded of just how messed up his life is.

With his mother in jail for... read more (warning: may contain spoilers)

Harley Altmyer should be in college drinking Rolling Rock and chasing girls. He should be freed from his closed-minded, stricken coal town, with its lack of jobs and no sense of humor. Instead, he's constantly reminded of just how messed up his life is.

With his mother in jail for killing his abusive father, Harley is an orphan with the responsibilities of an adult and the fiery, aggressive libido of a teenager. Just nineteen years old, he's marooned in the Pennsylvania backwoods caring for his three younger sisters, whose feelings about him range from stifling dependence to loathing. And once he develops an obsession with the sexy, melancholic mother of two living down the road, those Victoria's Secret catalogs just won't do the trick anymore. He wants Callie Mercer so badly he fears he will explode. But it's the family secrets, the lies, and the unspoken truths that light the fuse and erupt into a series of staggering surprises, leaving what's left of his family in tatters. Through every ordeal, the unforgettable Harley could never know that his endearing humor, his love for his sisters, and his bumbling heroics would redeem them all.

Funny and heartbreaking, Tawni O'Dell's pitch-perfect characters capture the maddening confusion of adolescence and the prickly nature of family with irony and unerring honesty. Back Roads is a riveting novel by a formidable new talent.

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First Sentence edit see section history

All those times me and Skip tried to kill his little brother, Donny, were just for fun.

Series & Lists edit see section history

This is book 35 of 70 in Oprah's Book Club. (authoritative list)

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Tawni O'Dell (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Viking Press/Allen Lane
Country: United States of America
Publication Date: January 2000
ISBN: 0-670-88760-9
Page Count: 338

Classification edit see section history

Notes for Parents edit see section history

Reading Level: Adults

Strong language, sexual situations, violence

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