John Fusco

Paradise Salvage John Fusco

In his tantalizing debut novel Paradise Salvage--at once a taut thriller and a lyrical coming-of-age story--John Fusco marvelously traces the unforgettable trajectory of twelve-year-old Nunzio Paradiso's last summer of innocence. To Kill a Mockingbird depicted such a summer--the last unfettered, wondrous season of youth. Each new wreck towed into Paradise Salvage--where the ferocious crusher presides with its power to reduce luxury automobiles into coffin-shaped heaps of twisted metal--is a desultory gift from Fortune, a random opportunity for discovery. Sometimes it's a handful of loose change under the upholstery or an old copy of Vue magazine with a Bettie Page centerfold under the front seat, but on a hot summer day in 1979, in the trunk of an abandoned Pontiac Bonneville, Nunzio uncovers a secret that will change his life. A story of innocence lost and justice found, of ambition frustrated and dreams realized, and the difference between generations of a family struggling to reconcile the traditions of the past with the demand of the present, Paradise Salvage glows with heart and marks the debut of a gifted storyteller.