Forgetting Places

A powerful book about a young boy who goes on a mysterious journey to find the reason for his brother’s suicide. Set in the 1980s, before social media and ubiquitous internet, the idea of the dead brother reaching out through computer messages is exotic. The odyssey from Kansas to California and back to the Starry Havens cemetery is emotionally wrenching yet full of humor and irony. One of S.P. Somtow’s few young adult novels, this book one the Iowa University’s Outstanding Book of the Year Award.