A Boy's Guide to Outer Space

by Peter Selgin

1963. Hattertown, Connecticut. Leo “ Half” Napoli mourns his dead hat factory worker father while daydreaming of being the first man on the moon and thereby “ partaking of something of the infinite." Meanwhile, he and his fellow Back Shop Boys (their fathers all worked in the dangerous, mercury-fume-laden back shops of hat factories) seek to learn the identity of the mysterious Man in Blue, who wanders the town collecting odd items in his rucksack. Elected to spy on him, Half and the mysterious man form a secret friendship in the course of which Half learns not only what “ Jack Thomas” has been collecting in his rucksack, and why, but the extraordinary circumstances that led to his fugitive existence — an odyssey extending from pre-WWII Bohemia to a German POW Camp in Illinois, and beyond.

301 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 12, 2024

About the author

Peter Selgin is the author of Drowning Lessons, winner of the 2007 Flannery O’Connor Award for Fiction, Life Goes to the Movies, a novel, two books on the craft of fiction, and two children’s books. His stories and essays have appeared in dozens of magazines and anthologies, including Glimmer Train Stories, Poets & Writers, The Sun, Slate, Colorado Review, Writers and Their Notebooks, Writing Fiction, and Best American Essays 2009. Confessions of a Left-Handed Man: An Artist’s Memoir, was recently published by the University of Iowa Press and was short-listed for the William Saroyan International Prize for Writing. His latest novel, The Water Master, won this years’ Pirate’s Alley / Faulkner Society Prize, and his essay, The Kuhreihen Melody, won the Missouri Review Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize. Selgin’s visual art has graced the pages of the The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, Outside, Gourmet, and other publications. Selgin has had several plays published and produced, including Night Blooming Serious, which won the Mill Mountain Theater Competition. His full-length play, A God in the House, based on Dr. Kevorkian and his suicide device, was a National Playwright’s Conference Winner and later optioned for Off-Broadway. He teaches at Antioch University’s MFA writing program and is Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Georgia College.

Reviews

[Olivia Mol · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that i picked up solely based on the cover - what a sweet surprise! I don't know how i would describe this writing style, but it really worked for me. the interiority of our main character Leo reminded me SO much of ralphie from a christmas story lol. if you like that kind of sarcastic, fantastical, goal oriented, all-american-boy narration, then you would like this book.

the ending of this book took me by surprise, and i like that there was truly nothing predictable about this story. it was such an emotional, complex story that felt very human. my favorite! can't wait to read more from this author.

[Morgan Howell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter Selgin illustrates Half’s past with a deft literary brush, painting a nostalgic world of yesterday in which the reader can immerse himself, a world of fading prosperity, complex relationships fraught with indescribable pain, and the magic of an unlikely friendship. I was mesmerized by Selgin’s insight into the human condition and his beautifully drawn characters.