Praise for My Sunshine Away
“Try and restrain yourself from flying through the pages of this wonderful novel. Instead savor this lush Louisiana mystery that takes you back to what life tasted like when you were still somewhat naïve to the ways of the world. Not just Southern, but American in its vivid Baton Rouge colors and scents, treetops and grasses, My Sunshine Away is the story of how the events of our youth profoundly affect us as adults. The last page is as satisfying as the first. A mystery you cannot wait to solve.”—Kathryn Stockett, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Help
“My Sunshine Away is not a thriller; it is not genre fiction; but it’s realism at its finest, and it is a page turner—a story made memorable in paragraph after paragraph by the brilliance of its author, and by the scope of the questions he asks as to how we live this life to the fullest as loving and moral beings. It’s about love, obsession, and pain. Such a beautiful book. Such a remarkable book. I can’t praise it enough.”—Anne Rice, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Prince Lestat
“[A] wrenching and wondrous coming-of-age tale. Walsh’s debut novel is a mystery, a Louisiana mash note and a deeply compassionate, clear-eyed take on the addled teen-boy mind.”—People
“Excellent…Walsh has an innate knack for plot and suspense, but the real pleasure here is his prose. This stunning and gracefully written debut novel is a total page-turner until the very end.”—Entertainment Weekly
“Capable of making a reader cry…and scream…And yet, you’re never exhausted trying to piece together clues to solve the crime. The power of the book lies in its spot-on characters.”—Oprah.com
“[A] rich, unexpected, exceptional book…A gripping read that’s more than a thriller, more than a traditional Southern tale, My Sunshine Away is a brilliant meditation on the unpredictability and the lifelong effects of childhood events and relationships.”—Chicago Tribune
“My Sunshine Away is also simply, like Lee’s [To Kill a Mockingbird], a great work of fiction. It’s a page-turning thriller with a heartbreaking crime and an intriguing cast of suspects…[Walsh’s] haunting, lyrical novel will compel you to look back on your own life’s mysteries, your own childhood fog.”—The Fort Worth Star Telegram
“Recalls the best of Pat Conroy: the rich Southern atmosphere, the interplay of darkness and light in adolescence, the combination of brisk narrative suspense with philosophical musings on memory, manhood, and truth….Celebrate, fiction lovers: The gods of Southern gothic storytelling have inducted a junior member.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Suspenseful, compassionate, and absorbing, Walsh’s word-perfect rendering of the doubts, insecurities, bravado, and idealism of teens deserves to be placed in the hands of readers of Tom Franklin, Hannah Pittard, and Jeffrey Eugenides.”—Booklist (starred review)
“[A] gripping 300-page debut novel that is already one of the year’s most anticipated books…[P]itch perfect on details…Walsh [is] a master storyteller.”—The New Orleans Times Picayune
“M.O. Walsh’s marvelous debut novel is so thick with searching nostalgia and melancholy, it gives the reader the same sense of authenticity and emotional satisfaction more typically associated with a good memoir. My Sunshine Away is the kind of novel you simply can’t put down.”—Dallas Morning News
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