Paperboy A Dysfunctional Novel by Bob Thurber Fiction · Paperback · 262 pages ISBN 978-1-934081-31-0 · Out of Print Click on cover image to see full-size version

"I think my sister might be a lunatic. My mother too, probably. I'm not sure about me yet."

It's 1969 and the entire nation is waiting for the United States to win the space race and put the first man on the moon. Meanwhile, fourteen-year-old Jack Fisher--malnourished and battered, abandoned by his father, neglected by his mother, manipulated by his older sister, harangued by his boss, and shortchanged by customers--is delivering newspapers in downtown Pawtucket and trying to keep his family from self-destructing completely.

As the whole world holds its breath to see what will become of the Apollo 11 astronauts, Jack clings to his daily mantra, "Things will get better." But in this poignant debut novel by award-winning short story writer Bob Thurber, things do not get better; they get drastically worse, at space-age speed.

"Bob Thurber is a masterful wordsmith, driving you into the undiscovered corners of the heart with insight and courage." - Susan Henderson, author of Up from the Blue

Paperboy is not a book, it's a state of mind. Gritty, visceral, desperately urgent, and begging to be read, it is a novel that perfectly captures a dangerous and uncertain zeitgeist, the no man's land that was really the no boy's land of 1969." - Vincent Carrella, author of The Serpent Box

Click here to read a review of Paperboy at the Three Guys One Book blog.

Click here to read an interview with Bob Thurber at the Mourning Goats blog.

Click here to read an extract from Paperboy.

Bob Thurber is a self-taught writer who practiced writing every day for twenty years before submitting his work to publications. He currently has three hundred publishing credits and has seen his work included in more than twenty anthologies. Over the past few years his short fiction has received numerous awards and citations, among them The Barry Hannah Fiction Prize and The Meridian Editors' Prize. He lives in Massachusetts. His website can be found at www.bobthurber.net.