But life in the Big Apple isn’t quite what Henry imagined. Working at the Central Park Children’s Zoo, the officious demands of his boss are compensated for by the endless fascination Henry feels for his charges. Amongst these, the undisputed star is Newman, the zoo’s goat, whose stoicism comes to represent a philosophical approach to life Henry wishes he could emulate. For Henry’s life is far from simple. He has fallen for the girl upstairs and over the summer his attempts to woo her veer from the charming to the mortifying.
Events build to a climax on the night of the New York City blackout when, rejected and heart-broken, Henry springs Newman from his pen and the goat escapes. Sacked from his job as a result, Henry returns chastened but no longer childish to his parents’ house, where a final act of selfless love transforms him from the child he has been into the man he will become.
Warm, generous, funny and insightful, this is a coming-of-age story with heart that brilliantly captures the innocence, passion and sense of possibility of a time before we know exactly who we are or what we want. This is intelligent, engaging and enormously enjoyable American fiction at its best.
