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Envious Moon: A Novel
by Thomas Christopher Greene
Hardcover : 288 pages
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Envious Moon is a harrowing tale of the sometimes dark obsession, and often sensual beauty, that accompanies young love. With a nod to Romeo and Juliet and reminiscent of Endless Love, Thomas Christopher Greene tells the story of two young lovers and their journey to find perfection in ...
Introduction
Envious Moon is a harrowing tale of the sometimes dark obsession, and often sensual beauty, that accompanies young love. With a nod to Romeo and Juliet and reminiscent of Endless Love, Thomas Christopher Greene tells the story of two young lovers and their journey to find perfection in each other's arms.
When young Anthony Lopes and his best friend set out from the small fishing community of Galilee, Rhode Island, to commit what they believe will be a victimless crime, they never imagined that it would change their lives forever.
They expected the mansion on the island bluffs to be empty. But inside they find a man and his daughter, Hannah. Haunted by her fleeting image and convinced he can atone for what happens to her father, Anthony is determined to find her.
Filled with the dazzling narrative drive, lyric prose, and compelling characterizations that have earned Thomas Christopher Greene the admiration of Nelson DeMille, Bret Lott, and Susan Cheever, Envious Moon is a luminous, highly original, and riveting novel about what it means to love, and be loved.
Excerpt
The summer I turned ten my father got a new job on the Mavis, a sword boat. Sword fishing was the most lucrative of the commercial fishing jobs and that was a good summer and he made good money. We ate steak on nights he returned and listened to Red Sox games on the radio. The happiest nights of my life were the nights when he came home. We never knew when to expect him because a fishing boat only returns when it is full of fish or out of fuel. But somehow I could sense when he was on land. I don’t know how to describe it and maybe it was just luck. But he was never able to surprise me. I’d stand in the front yard and watch the street and think, he’s going to turn the corner now. It was like I was willing him to be there. And on those moments when I was right, I’d see him in the distance in the summer heat, at first only a figure outlined against the hot day. But there was no mistaking him, his walk. I’d run out to the street to him, yelling his name and when I got close, he’d stop and wait for me. He’d hold his arms out wide and smile. I’d jump into his arms and smell his cigarettes and all the fish he had caught. His sweat. He’d hold me up and kiss my cheeks and then put me down and tell me to get my mother. And it didn’t matter how tired he was, we’d still spend hours kicking a soccer ball back and forth in the road. He’d tell me stories about life at sea. I wanted nothing more than to be on a boat with him. To learn to fish as he did and sometimes when I told him this, his mood changed. You won’t be a fisherman, Anthony, he said. ... view entire excerpt...Discussion Questions
From the Author:1. How reliable is the narrator? What does Anthony’s story say about the nature of truth? About memory?
2. The novel draws it’s title from Romeo and Juliet. What does the book say about class in America? How do the different backgrounds of Anthony and Hannah affect their interaction?
3. The novel is a story of love and obsession, and, in particular, the blinding love of adolescence? Where in the novel does the love they have for one another cross the line into obsession?
4. What does the book say about fate? About chance? About the inevitability of events?
Notes From the Author to the Bookclub
A Note from Thomas: Dear Reader: I am often asked what it is that write. My answer is that I write love stories. There are all kind of stories worth writing. War stories, stories of injustice, stories about people fighting against impossible odds. For me, I write about love for it is through love that we discover not only the fundamental questions of life and of death, but also what it means to be human, and, in turn, what it means to be humane. In ENVIOUS MOON, I explore that most fragile—and dangerous—of instruments: the teenage heart. Anthony Lopes, a seventeen year old fisherman, fall obsessively in love with a wealthy girl, Hannah Forbes, he meets while robbing her house. Responsible for the death of her father, he becomes determined to win her forgiveness, even if it threatens their very survival. With a nod to ROMEO and JULIET, and reminiscient of ENDLESS LOVE, the result is a novel about the blinding love of youth, about choices, about the sea, about families, about class and perception, and, ultimately, about the nature of truth itself.Book Club Recommendations
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