Aftershock

Seventeen-year-old Adam and his parents are driving home to Rhode Island from a peace rally in Seattle when the accident happens. In a single, horrible moment, his parents are gone. And Adam is alone. In a speechless state of shock, Adam begins walking across the country, toward home. But he can't think in a straight line: The past and present merge in his thoughts, and the future's a blank. As flashes of memory come to him — some wonderful, some violent — he begins to wonder if he has truly lost everything. TORMENT: EXTREME PAIN OR ANGUISH OF BODY OR MIND Seventeen-year-old Adam is tormented. His parents have just been killed in a car crash in Idaho, and he has survived. In a speechless state of shock, Adam begins walking home, back to Rhode Island. But he can't think in a straight line: The past and present blend and merge in his thoughts; the future's a blank; he's lost his voice and his money. Memories fling themselves at him like stones, some inflicting great pain. In Adam's harrowing journey he faces many challenges. He confronts situations that demand violence or compromise from him, forcing him to question what it means to be a man, even as he tries to find his voice in a world suddenly devoid of meaning. This gripping and haunting novel is the story of one young man's struggle to survive -- literally -- on the road, and to propel himself emotionally from despair to hope and freedom. In shock and unable to speak after being in a car accident in Oregon which has killed his parents, seventeen-year-old Adam journeys across the country to his home in Rhode Island.