Book cover for Mr. Was by Pete Hautman
2009 Released
256 Pages
3-4 Hours
Audiobook Unavailable
Paperback Unavailable
Hardback Unavailable
Simon & Schuster Books for Young ReadersISBN 9781439115749


Jack Lund figures a good day is when his dad's too drunk to beat up his mom.

For Jack, Bogg's End is the end. The end of the turbulent, see-saw years of watching his father go on the wagon and fall right back off gain. Once it took two years, but the inevitable inevitably happened. Now it's just Jack and his mom starting over in the strange old house his grandfather left them.

But the ride's not over yet. Jack's father returns, full of apologies and promises, and for a little while, things are looking up. Then in one terrifying, sickening moment, everything comes crashing back down again.

So Jack runs. He runs through a strange hidden door that takes him back in time to before his parents were born. Before he was born. Maybe with a second chance he can stop the inevitable. At least he's got to try. What Jack doesn't understand, though, is that he can't change his future until he faces his past.

Pete Hautman

Pete Hautman is the author of National Book Award winner Godless, Sweetblood, Hole in the Sky, Stone Cold, the Flinkwater Chronicles, Road Tripped, Otherwood, Slider, and Mr. Was, which was nominated for an Edgar by the Mystery Writers of America, as well as several other novels for children and adults. He lives in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

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