After Lucy Hardback - 2000

This poignant and charming debut novel about a recently widowed father and the two young children he is left to raise heralds the arrival of an exciting new voice in contemporary fiction

Just three weeks after Porter Ellis's wife, Lucy, dies from breast cancer, he decides that more than anything he and his two children need to go on an adventure. In an impulsive move, he trades his wife's Mazda for a dilapidated, hippie-mobile camper, ignores the disapproval of Lucy's grieving parents--as well as his guilt over whisking away their grandchildren--and takes twelve-year-old Kaylie and eight-year-old Ben on a trip that he hopes will mend their broken hearts. The journey quickly veers away from its intended route, however, plunging Porter into an exploration of choices made years earlier that derailed his dreams. Along the way, chance encounters with a number of eccentric and amusing characters help him realize that he must face his sorrow and restart his life. Daniel Jones captures a comic, light undertone in this story of a family learning to cope and move on.

Just three weeks after Porter Ellis's wife, Lucy, dies from breast cancer, he decides that more than anything he and his two children need to go on an adventure. In an impulsive move, he trades his wife's Mazda for a dilapidated, hippie-mobile camper, ignores the disapproval of Lucy's grieving parents--as well as his guilt over whisking away their grandchildren--and takes twelve-year-old Kaylie and eight-year-old Ben on a trip that he hopes will mend their broken hearts. The journey quickly veers away from its intended route, however, plunging Porter into an exploration of choices made years earlier that derailed his dreams. Along the way, chance encounters with a number of eccentric and amusing characters help him realize that he must face his sorrow and restart his life. Daniel Jones captures a comic, light undertone in this story of a family learning to cope and move on.Just three weeks after Porter Ellis's wife, Lucy, dies from breast cancer, he decides that more than anything he and his two children need to go on an adventure. In an impulsive move, he trades his wife's Mazda for a dilapidated, hippie-mobile camper, ignores the disapproval of Lucy's grieving parents--as well as his guilt over whisking away their grandchildren--and takes twelve-year-old Kaylie and eight-year-old Ben on a trip that he hopes will mend their broken hearts. The journey quickly veers away from its intended route, however, plunging Porter into an exploration of choices made years earlier that derailed his dreams. Along the way, chance encounters with a number of eccentric and amusing characters help him realize that he must face his sorrow and restart his life. Daniel Jones captures a comic, light undertone in this story of a family learning to cope and move on.