Best book I've read in months. I would compare it favorably to The Memory of Running. It's not always happy or neat and tidy, but I think that King does a great job of trying to relay what it would be like to be unable to communicate effectively with the outside world. Highly recommended.

Contraray to the other review, I loved this book to the point I would save each chapter until I could really appreciate it. It is a wonderfully warm, funny as well as sad glimpse at the life of someone that has very limited communication skills, but is still able to build a very special relationship with a young boy that is both rewarding and challenging, thereby showing we can always overcome our limitations. Dave King illustrates though minute and extermely insightful detail the complexities of human nature with a very positive and endearing overtone. Overall all a wonderfully rewarding read and a fantastic first novel.

I hated this "nothing much goes on" book. Further, it was quite depressing. Nothing gets resolved and there was miles of room for providing some character depth of characters like Nit and Nat and even the cook. His reminising about Mom and Dad tore up my heart and I find that a very unpleasant and unnecessary trait in a book where that is not essential to the, in this case, limp plot.
Noones life improves and noone even mentally vows to try harder. This book wasted a week of reading time for me.