The Burbs

Chicago’s western suburbs. Young Joe Walsh is making a go of it at a new school, still haunted by his rough-and-tumble city upbringing. He’s got some great opportunities—a summer seminar at one of the world’s top physics laboratories, a hard-hitting Catholic clergyman and boxing instructor who thinks he’s got talent in the ring, and a beautiful girlfriend who’s giving him some much-needed love and support. But the challenges of Chicago have followed him to its outskirts; his sister’s struggling to recover after being shot by one of his former friends, his mom’s unvarnished ways are rubbing their wealthy neighbors the wrong way, and his brother’s fresh out of prison and falling into old habits. Like many young men before him, Joe’s taking out his frustrations in the boxing ring, and dreaming of a triumphant career—but will that, too, become a prison? This follow-up to Bill Hillmann’s The Old Neighborhood connects like a 1-2 punch. It’s another modern classic from one of the city’s best authors, a powerful story unlike anything you’ve read before.

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