Exciting New Release

Posted by Wayne G. Barber

You’ll want to read this Maine author’s touching tale of relationships, heartbreak

 

In a small, tidy, heated backyard studio with ladder bookcases and an L-shaped tabletop, built by her husband 22 years ago, a Maine author crafted a touching tale that explores relationships, heartbreak and the intersection of the two.
Author and playwright Monica Wood’s newest book, “The One-in-A-Million Boy,” tells the story of the aftermath of the death of an 11-year-old boy who’d forged a friendship with an 104-year-old woman. While his family reels from his death, his often-absent father steps in to finish a weekly commitment the boy had made to the woman, Ona Vitkus, to fulfill the requirements for an unfinished Boy Scout badge his son was working on.

The story is one that just came to Wood.
“Some books just arrive. This was one of them. Which is not to say it was easy; it was the hardest one yet,” Wood said in an Authors Hour email interview earlier this week.

The incandescent story of a 104-year-old woman and the sweet, strange young boy assigned to help her around the house — a friendship that touches each member of the boy’s unmoored family

For years, guitarist Quinn Porter has been on the road, chasing gig after gig, largely absent to his twice-ex-wife Belle and their odd, Guinness records–obsessed son. When the boy dies suddenly, Quinn seeks forgiveness for his paternal shortcomings by completing the requirements for his son’s unfinished Boy Scout badge.

For seven Saturdays, Quinn does yard work for Ona Vitkus, the wily 104-year-old Lithuanian immigrant the boy had visited weekly. Quinn soon discovers that the boy had talked Ona into gunning for the world record for Oldest Licensed Driver — and that’s the least of her secrets. Despite himself, Quinn picks up where the boy left off, forging a friendship with Ona that allows him to know the son he never understood, a boy who was always listening, always learning.

The One-in-a-Million Boy is a richly layered novel of hearts broken seemingly beyond repair and then bound by a stunning act of human devotion.