The place is Ithaca, in California's San Joaquin Valley. The time is World War I
I. The family is the Macauley's-a mother, sister, and three brothers whose strug
gles and dreams reflect those of America's second-generation immigrants.In parti
cular, fourteen-year-old Homer, determined to become one of the fastest telegrap
h messengers in the West, finds himself caught between reality and illusion as d
elivering his messages of wartime death, love, and money brings him face-to-face
with human emotion at its most naked and raw.
Gentle, poignant and richly au
tobiographical, this delightful novel shows us the boy becoming the man in a wor
ld that even in the midst of war, appears sweeter, safer and more livable than o
ut own.
