Slow Way Home

By Michael Morris

On the surface, Brandon Willard seems like your average eight-year-old boy. He loves his mama, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and G. I. Joe. But Brandon's life is anything but typical.

Wise beyond his years, Brandon understands he's the only one in this world he can count on. It's an outlook that serves him well the day his mama leaves him behind at the Raleigh bus station and sets off to Canada with "her destiny" -- the latest man that she hopes will bring her happiness. The day his mother leaves, Brandon takes the first step toward shaping his own destiny. Soon he sends himself spending pleasant days playing with his cousins on his grandparents' farm and trying to forget the past. In the safety of that place, Brandon finally is able to trust the love of an adult to help iron out the wiry places until his nerves are as steady as any other boy's.

But when Sophie Willard shows up a year later with a determined look in her eye and a new man in tow, Brandon's grandparents ignore a judge's ruling and flee the state with Brandon. Creating a new life and identity in a small Florida town, Brandon meets the people who will fill him with self-worth and self-respect. He slowly becomes involved with "God's Hospital," a church run by the gregarious Sister Delores, a woman who is committed to a life of service for all members of the community, black and white, regardless of some townsfolk's disapproval.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Apr 7, 2009
• ISBN: 9780061900259

Michael Morris

A fifth-generation native of Perry, Florida, a rural area near Tallahassee, Michael Morris knows southern culture and characters. It is the foundation and inspiration for the stories and novels he writes. Upon graduating from Auburn University, Michael worked for U.S. Senator Bob Graham and then became a sales representative for pharmaceutical companies. As a sales representative, Michael decided to follow a life-long desire and began writing in the evenings. The screenplay he penned during this time is still someplace in the bottom of a desk drawer. It is when Michael accepted a position in government affairs and moved to North Carolina that he began to take writing more seriously. While studying under author Tim McLaurin, Michael started writing the story that would eventually become his first novel, A Place Called Wiregrass. The novel was released in April, 2002 and is currently in its third printing. A Place Called Wiregrass was named a Booksense 76 selection by members of the American Independent Booksellers Association as and is part of the southern literature curriculum at two universities. Michael's latest novel, Slow Way Home, will be released by Harper Collins on September 23 and his work can be seen in the southern anthology Stories From The Blue Moon Café II. Michael and his wife, Melanie, reside in Fairhope, Alabama.

Reviews for Slow Way Home

[marthahuntley · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is the selection for a book group I'm in, and I was very interested in reading it since it takes place partly in Raleigh and partly in Florida, close to two places I've lived. I liked the writing, the story, the characters, and the pacing very much. The boy Brandon makes a good narrator and the reader is pulling for him all the way. The story is basically about loving grandparents concerned about a grandchild whose parent is toxic, and their desire to do right by the grandchild while realizing they may have made some mistakes with the incorrigible parent. It's a very common predicament these days, and the book is a great tribute to all those grandparents (including mine) who helped raise, and sometimes save and salvage their grandchildren. The plot with the social agencies role(s) seems quite true to life. Another reason I really like this book is that it treats church, Christian faith, and even God with respect and I think, truthfulness, without being sentimental or predictable.