Seattle, WA.—If you could talk to your childhood self, would that child listen? ForeWord Magazine announced today that Michael Landweber has won its Debut Novelist Award for his novel WE ($12.95, 194 pp, 5x8 Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-1-60381-166-8). WE transports the narrator into his own past in the critical days before a family tragedy. The award includes a free Foreword Clarion Review, excerpted here: 5 Stars: “Reflective and introspective, yet highly charged with dramatic scenes in a race against time, this mesmerizing novel is a page-turner that will captivate even a jaded critic…. As Ben interacts with Binky in this touching and often humorous tale, the far-fetched aspect of this unusual occurrence is accepted. Drawn into the warring conversation between adult and child—parts of the same personality—one will learn what constitutes real maturity opposed to merely grown-up behavior when a sibling’s life is threatened. Striking is the dual perspective within the same protagonist, an unusual angle that can be difficult to implement…. [In WE, Landweber] makes not only an impressive debut, but has already succeeded at an experimental undertaking few could achieve.”
–Julia Ann Charpentier, ForeWord Clarion Reviews
After an accident, forty-year-old Ben Arnold regains consciousness in the kitchen of the house he grew up in. Only he feels different, lighter somehow. Something is horribly wrong. Ben is swept into the arms of his mother, who he hasn’t seen in twenty years. She calls him by his childhood nickname, Binky. He sees a younger, unbroken version of his father. His estranged brother is there, reverted back to his awkward teenage self. Finally, adding horror to his confusion, he glimpses his older sister Sara as she runs out the door to meet her boyfriend.
Sara, whose absence he has felt every day since her death.
Ben is a mere hitchhiker, a parasite in the brain of seven-year-old Binky, and his younger self is not happy to have him there.
It is three days before his sister will be attacked. Ben knows he has to save Sara but first he must gain Binky’s trust. Even if he can get Binky to say the right words, to do the right thing, who will believe that a young boy can foretell the future?
Says Landweber, “Every parent has started a lecture to their children with the phrase, ‘When I was your age ...’ The urge to say just that to my own kids got me thinking about what it would be like to be able to talk to myself as a child about mistakes I knew I had made. Could I convince myself to do things differently? That was the question that started me down the road to writing We.”
Michael Landweber grew up in Madison, WI, went to school in Princeton, NJ, and Ann Arbor, MI, met his wife in Tokyo and currently lives with her and their two children in Washington, DC. Mike is an Associate Editor at Potomac Review and a contributor on film and TV for Pop Matters. He has published numerous short stories. More on Mike can be found at mikelandweber.com.
We is available in eBook and 5x8 trade paperback on Amazon.com, BN.com, the European Amazons, and Amazon Japan. Wholesale orders can be placed through info@coffeetownpress.com, Ingram, or Baker & Taylor. Libraries can also purchase books through Follett Library Resources or Midwest Library Service.
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