In a summer that refuses to end, in the deceiving warmth
of earliest October, civil war has come to Green Town,
Illinois. It is the age-old conflict: the young against the
elderly, for control of the clock that ticks their lives
ever forward. The first cap-pistol shot heard 'round the
town is dead accurate, felling an old man in his tracks,
compelling town elder and school board despot Mr. Calvin C.
Quartermain to marshal his graying forces and declare total
war on the assassin, thirteen-year-old Douglas Spaulding,
and his downy-cheeked cohorts. Doug and his cronies,
however, are most worthy adversaries who should not be
underestimated, as they plan and execute daring
campaigns—matching old Quartermain's experience and cunning
with their youthful enthusiasm and devil-may-care
determination to hold on forever to childhood's summer. Yet
time must ultimately be the victor, with valuable
revelations for those on both sides of the conflict. And
life waits in ambush to assail Doug Spaulding with its
powerful mysteries—the irresistible ascent of manhood, the
sweet surrender to a first kiss . . .
One of the
most acclaimed and beloved of American storytellers, Ray
Bradbury has come home, revisiting the verdant landscape of
one of his most adored works, Dandelion Wine. More
than fifty years in the making, the long-awaited sequel,
Farewell Summer, is a treasure—beautiful, poignant,
wistful, hilarious, sad, evocative, profound, and
unforgettable . . . and proof positive that the flame of
wonder still burns brightly within the irrepressible
imagination of the incomparable Bradbury.