Bestseller Alan Brennert's spellbinding story about a familyof dreamers and their lives withinthe legendary Palisades Amusement Park
Growing up in the 1930s, there is no more magical place than Palisades Amusement Park in New Jerseyespecially for seven-year-old Antoinette, who horrifies her mother by insisting on the unladylike nickname Toni,and her brother, Jack. Toni helps her parents, Eddie and Adele Stopka, at the stand where they sell homemade French fries amid the roar of the Cyclone roller coaster. There is also the lure of the worlds biggest salt-water pool, complete withdivers whoseastonishing stunts inspire Toni, despite her mother's insistence that girls can't be high divers.
But a family of dreamers doesn't always share the same dreams, and then the world intrudes:There's the Great Depression, and Pearl Harbor, which hits home in ways thatwill split the family apart; andperils like fire and race riotsin the park.Both Eddie andJack face the dangers ofwar, whileAdele hasambitions of her ownand Toni is determined to take ona very different kind of danger in impossible feats as ahigh diver.Yet they are all drawn back to each otherand to Palisades Parkuntilthe parkcloses forever in 1971.
Evocative and moving, with the trademark brilliance at transforming historical events into irresistible fiction that made Alan Brennerts Moloka'i and Honoluluinto reading group favorites, Palisades Park takes us back to a time when life seemed simplerexcept, of course, it wasn't.
Review
"Brennert...creates a real emotional pull in his evocative description of the eccentric, hardworking people who made up the Palisades family in good times and in bad." Publishers Weekly on Palisades Park
"This nostalgic coming-of-age tale of a little girl with big dreams is the perfect read." Library Journal on Palisades Park
A literate, thoughtful saga.Brennerts tale is a universal one [and] a pleasure to read. Kirkus Reviews on Palisades Park
"A sweeping, epic novel . . . beautifully told." Library Journal (starred) on Honolulu"A lush tale of ambition, sacrifice, and survival. . . . Immense . . . yet intimate."
Booklist on *Honolulu
A dazzling historical saga. The Washington Post on Moloka'i
"A poignant story." Los Angeles Times on Moloka'i
"A superb novel." Los Angeles Daily News on Moloka'i *
About the Author
ALAN BRENNERTgrew up in Edgewater, New Jersey, at the foot of the Palisades.He won an Emmy Award in 1991 for his work as a writer-producer on *L.A. Law,*and was nominated fortwo otherEmmy Awards as well as aGolden Globe. He won aNebula Award for his story Ma Qui. The author of the national bestsellers Moloka'i,a "Bookies" awardwinner for Book Club Book of the Year,and Honolulu, winner ofElle's Lettres 2009 Grand Prix for Fiction, he lives in Sherman Oaks, California.
ฯก์ฏฆ๋