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    Setting Free the Kites
    Unavailable
    Setting Free the Kites
    Unavailable
    Setting Free the Kites
    Audiobook8 hours

    Setting Free the Kites

    Written by Alex George

    Narrated by Ari Fliakos

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    From the author of the "lyrical and compelling" (USA Today) novel A Good American comes a powerful story of two friends and the unintended consequences of friendship, loss, and hope.

    For Robert Carter, life in his coastal Maine hometown is comfortably predictable. But in 1976, on his first day of eighth grade, he meets Nathan Tilly, who changes everything. Nathan is confident, fearless, impetuous-and fascinated by kites and flying. Robert and Nathan's budding friendship is forged in the crucible of two family tragedies, and as the boys struggle to come to terms with loss, they take summer jobs at the local rundown amusement park. It's there that Nathan's boundless capacity for optimism threatens to overwhelm them both, and where they learn some harsh truths about family, desire, and revenge.

    Unforgettable and heart-breaking, Setting Free the Kites is a poignant and moving exploration of the pain, joy, and glories of young friendship.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateFeb 21, 2017
    ISBN9781524751401
    Unavailable
    Setting Free the Kites
    Author

    Alex George

    A native of England, Alex George read law at Oxford University and worked for eight years as a corporate lawyer in London and Paris. He has lived in the Midwest of the United States for the last sixteen years. He is the founder and director of the Unbound Book Festival, and is the owner of Skylark Bookshop, an independent bookstore in downtown Columbia, Missouri. Alex is the author of The Paris Hours, A Good American, and Setting Free the Kites.

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    Reviews for Setting Free the Kites

    4/5

    43 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Alex George's writing is captivating. His characters are real and easy to like. They're all flawed, but I loved that about them. He uses words perfectly to capture each situation. I look forward to reading more of his novels. "Setting Free the Kites" was a delightful surprise.
    • 4/5
      This is a coming of age story that begins when Robert is beginning 8th grade in 1976. He is afraid of going back to school after summer break because he was bullied by another student the previous year. Sure enough, at the end of the first school day he's on his knees in a bathroom stall with his head in the toilet. Suddenly the stall door slams open and a new boy, Nathan, saves Robert from further humiliation and pain.Immediately Robert and Nathan become inseparable. Neither has much parental supervision and they are free to roam their costal locale seeking adventure. Over the next few years Robert and Nathan experience the joy of friendship, tragedy in both of their families, and exasperation with each other. In these characters George has gracefully captured the bittersweet nature of teen friendship.A moving and thoughtful book, the story is being told by Robert forty years after the friendship ends. George has created a moody and atmospheric setting with beautiful writing and characters that can't escape from my head. I had read George's first book, [A Good American] and put him on my new authors to watch list. I'm not in any way disappointed by his second book and look forward to his third.
    • 4/5
      Robert first met Nathan when as a new boy he came to Roberts aid when he was being bullied. From there this friendship became the cornerstone of Roberts life. Looking back from forty years in the future, he remembers the years with both regret and longing. A time of an amazing friendship and unconsolable loss.I finished this book feeling melancholy and sentimental.. Looking back we can probably all remember a special friendship that meant everything. For Robert and his family it would be a time of profound loss, of trying to come together as a family, saving what was left. A time of adventure and discovery, a first job and a new and unique friendship with an old man. I enjoyed this book, but there is much sadness, moments of joy, exhilaration as well. Two boys so different, one more careful, one daring. Dealing with grief and how we all handle it differently. Music and literature are a big motif, and a secret will be revealed concerning one.ARC from publisher.
    • 5/5
      This author keeps you on your toes as you read. The things you least expect happen. Sometimes it was hard to read and other times, I couldn't put it down. I will be looking forward to the next things from Alex George. His writing reminds me of some of my other favorite authors like John Irving and Richard Russo. Each of his stories opens a new window into the world of people and the places they live.
    • 4/5
      A beautifully-rendered tale of friendship amid family tragedy.Robert Carter, raised on coastal Maine, looks back at the eventful time in his early teens when he met his best friend, Nathan Tilly, recently arrived from Texas. Robert's family owns a small theme-park, the town's main draw during the critical tourist season. His beloved older brother is critically ill with Duchennne muscular dystrophy, around which family life revolves as they await the inevitable. Nathan is a natural risk taker, in love with life and with a wonderful imagination for the possibilities he finds in his new surroundings. His father makes and flies kites, and loves to climb on the family's home to fly them, and his mother is a reclusive chain-smoker who spends her days with a typewriter in a closed-off room. When Nathan interrupts one of the long series of beatings Robert has received from the school bully, the two become inseparable. Over the next two years they have numerous adventures and help each other through tragedies in both families and the early years of pubescence.A book I wished wouldn't end.
    • 5/5
      I enjoyed this book so much more than I thought I would. Lately it seems every middle school age book I read is just so much more powerful and emotional than the adult fiction books I am reading. This was one of those books that made me laugh, cry and feel what each character felt. The writing is just so good and the characters were believable. The book took place in the late 1970's. Robert meets Nathan just at the start of eighth grade and the two become fast friends. This was just an overall great story of the joys and heartaches of young friendship. I received a complimentary e-book from the publisher in exchange for a review.
    • 4/5
      This book begins in 1976 and covers two years in the friendship between the narrator Robert Carter and his best (and seemingly only) friend Nathan Tilly. They are around 13 or 14 when the story begins. Nathan is an optimistic free spirit and occasionally reckless. Neither boy is getting a lot of parental attention, but for different reasons. Despite Nathan's inherently positive approach to life, this is a pretty melancholy book. From the very beginning there is always sadness surrounding even their more playful moments. Growing up isn't easy and the boys and their parents have to face bullying, illness, tragedy and grief. It definitely held my interest and, for the most part, it felt very real. However, it turned out that Mrs. Tilly was keeping a secret which I doubt would have been possible to hide in real life. I have sort of mixed feelings about this book. It was well written and I wanted to know how it turned out, but it didn't make me feel good.I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
    • 4/5
      With his sophomore novel, Setting Free the Kites, Alex George has created a cast of indelible, believable and relatable characters in a story that is both devastating and life-affirming. Narrator Robert Carter, a born-and-bred Maine resident, is an anxious non-entity subjected to daily bullying until a chance encounter with happy-go-lucky Nathan Tilly, a recent transplant from Texas, changes the course of his life. Robert’s father runs a family-owned amusement park that has seen better days. He’s a steady, methodical man and the family’s orderly existence centers on their oldest son, Liam, who is slowly dying from Duchenne muscular dystrophy. On the other hand, Nathan’s father is a free-spirit who uses his time to build kites, fly them and “set them free,” while his mother spends countless hours in her study, behind closed doors typing and chain smoking. The Carter and Tilly families could not be more different, yet both weather unbearable losses over the course of the story. The Tilly’s is sudden and shocking, while the Carter’s is agonizingly drawn out. Even the nature of their misfortunes is in keeping with the character of each family. The boys spend all their time together, flying Mr. Tilly’s kites, listening to Liam’s catalogue of punk albums, working summer jobs at the Fun-A-Lot amusement park and exploring an abandoned paper mill. In the process, they exact revenge on town bully Hollis Calhoun, gain an appreciation for Bebop music courtesy of Lewis Jenks, the Fun-A-Lot handyman, and learn about love and heartbreak from a bodice-ripper romance novel and Faye, a lovely amusement park cashier. George does a wonderful job recreating the atmosphere and mood of the late 1970’s. Even the minor characters are fully realized. The novel examines how grief impacts the choices people make – whether it causes them to retreat into themselves or behave with greater abandon. For Nathan, the ultimate Icarus, it is the latter as he continuously reaches higher, daring himself to get too close to the sun. This is a deeply pleasurable read. Oftentimes very humorous and deceptively blithe. It has a kind of nostalgic Americana, very much in the vain of John Irving or Richard Russo. My only qualm is with the Epilogue, which summarizes Robert’s life from 1978 to 2016 in 16 pages. It seemed filled with irrelevant information and was rushed and perfunctory. But that’s a quibble. A moving, thought-provoking book.