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Reader's Digest Select Editions, Vol 6: The Valley of Light / Street Boys (Large Print)
Reader's Digest Select Editions Vol 6 The Valley of Light / Street Boys - Large Print Author:Terry Kay, Lorenzo Carcaterra The Valley of Light: Shortly after World War II, returning veteran Noah Locke begins wandering the South, looking for something. Noah is illiterate and, frankly, not very intelligent. But he's good-natured and knows how to talk to people. He is also a mystically gifted fisherman, capable of catching strings of catfish in ponds others s... more »wear have long been dry. When an old man tells him about a town known as the Valley of Light and its annual fishing contest, Noah decides to visit. Once there, Noah quickly becomes part of the small town's life and secrets. He is especially drawn to a young widow whose husband may or may not have killed himself after returning from World War II. The townsfolk are universally kind to Noah--which, unfortunately, leaves the book without much dramatic tension. When tragedy strikes the town, Noah is inspired to head back to his hometown and reconnect with his jailed brother. A supernatural moment at the end of the novel reveals a perhaps divine plot behind Noah's travels.
Street Boys: Just when you think World War II as a subject in fiction has been exhausted, along comes the latest from Carcaterra (Sleepers). Inspired partly by his own family's experiences in 1943 Naples, Carcaterra's latest tells the story of orphaned and abandoned boys and girls, some as young as ten, and their guerrilla warfare against the Nazis. U.S. Army corpsman Steve Connors is caught behind enemy lines and helps coordinate their assaults. While this is a story about children, it is most definitely not a story for children. Although not without moments of humor and romance, Street Boys is exciting, graphic, brutal, grim, and tense. The action is virtually nonstop, and the urban warfare in the streets and sewers of Naples is gritty and evocative of Stalingrad.« less