If Jack’s In Love

Every neighborhood has that house- the one with the broken down cars on the front lawn, the one where the father is always out of work and starting fights with other dads, the one no one wants to go near.
Twelve-year-old Jack Witcher lives in that house.

And that’s just where his problems begin.

It is 1967, and Jack’s father has lost his job, yet again.

The war in Vietnam is perpetually on the news, and Jack is in love with a girl named Myra.

But Myra’s family is the opposite of Jack’s.

Her father is well dressed and well spoken.

Her brother is the town’s golden boy.
To win Myra’s love,

Jack schemes with the only person in town who will deign to be his friend, the town jeweler and sole Jew.

But when Myra’s brother goes missing, Jack’s pot-smoking older brother becomes suspect number one.
‘It took Stephen Wetta fifty-five years to write this promising first novel … I only hope Mr. Wetta writes a little faster next time so I’ll be around to say I told you so.’

Pete Dexter, author of Paris Trout and Spooner.
‘Heartfelt, heartbreaking, suspenseful, and riveting … The novel, full of beautifully realized characters and predicaments, gets everything exactly right.’

Timothy Schaffer, author of The Coffins of Little Hope