The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley: A Novel
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “A gripping American-on-the-run thriller . . . a brilliant coming-of-age tale and a touching exploration of father-daughter relationships.”—Newsweek
“One part Quentin Tarantino, one part Scheherazade, and twelve parts wild innovation.”—Ann Patchett, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth
NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST NOVELS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • The Washington Post • Paste
Samuel Hawley isn’t like the other fathers in Olympus, Massachusetts. A loner who spent years living on the run, he raised his beloved daughter, Loo, on the road, moving from motel to motel, always watching his back. Now that Loo’s a teenager, Hawley wants only to give her a normal life. In his late wife’s hometown, he finds work as a fisherman, while Loo struggles to fit in at the local high school.
Growing more and more curious about the mother she never knew, Loo begins to investigate. Soon, everywhere she turns, she encounters the mysteries of her parents’ lives before she was born. This hidden past is made all the more real by the twelve scars her father carries on his body. Each scar is from a bullet Hawley took over the course of his criminal career. Each is a memory: of another place on the map, another thrilling close call, another moment of love lost and found. As Loo uncovers a history that’s darker than she could have known, the demons of her father’s past spill over into the present—and together both Hawley and Loo must face a reckoning yet to come.
Praise for The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley
“A master class in literary suspense.”—The Washington Post
“Tinti depicts brutality and compassion with exquisite sensitivity, creating a powerful overlay of love and pain.”—The New Yorker
“Hannah Tinti’s beautifully constructed second novel . . . uses the scars on Hawley’s body—all twelve bullet wounds, one by one—to show who he is, what he’s done, and why the past chases and clings to him with such tenacity.”—The Boston Globe
“The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley is an adventure epic with the deeper resonance of myth. . . . Tinti exhibits an aptitude for shining a piercing light into the corners of her characters’ hearts and minds.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
“One part Quentin Tarantino, one part Scheherazade, and twelve parts wild innovation.”—Ann Patchett, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Commonwealth
NAMED ONE OF PASTE’S BEST NOVELS OF THE DECADE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NPR • The Washington Post • Paste
Samuel Hawley isn’t like the other fathers in Olympus, Massachusetts. A loner who spent years living on the run, he raised his beloved daughter, Loo, on the road, moving from motel to motel, always watching his back. Now that Loo’s a teenager, Hawley wants only to give her a normal life. In his late wife’s hometown, he finds work as a fisherman, while Loo struggles to fit in at the local high school.
Growing more and more curious about the mother she never knew, Loo begins to investigate. Soon, everywhere she turns, she encounters the mysteries of her parents’ lives before she was born. This hidden past is made all the more real by the twelve scars her father carries on his body. Each scar is from a bullet Hawley took over the course of his criminal career. Each is a memory: of another place on the map, another thrilling close call, another moment of love lost and found. As Loo uncovers a history that’s darker than she could have known, the demons of her father’s past spill over into the present—and together both Hawley and Loo must face a reckoning yet to come.
Praise for The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley
“A master class in literary suspense.”—The Washington Post
“Tinti depicts brutality and compassion with exquisite sensitivity, creating a powerful overlay of love and pain.”—The New Yorker
“Hannah Tinti’s beautifully constructed second novel . . . uses the scars on Hawley’s body—all twelve bullet wounds, one by one—to show who he is, what he’s done, and why the past chases and clings to him with such tenacity.”—The Boston Globe
“The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley is an adventure epic with the deeper resonance of myth. . . . Tinti exhibits an aptitude for shining a piercing light into the corners of her characters’ hearts and minds.”—O: The Oprah Magazine
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Community Reviews
thenextgoodbook.com
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti
372 pages
What’s it about?
Loo knows her father is different than most men. Samuel Hawley is a loner with a criminal past. He and Loo lived on the run until he finally decided to settle down in his late wife's hometown. He wants to give Loo a more normal life. But will Samuel Hawley ever be able to out run his criminal past?
What did it make me think about?
This was another coming-of-age story but Loo's life does not resemble most people's. The author uses flashbacks of each bullet wound on Samuel's body to connect us to his past. It was an interesting technique and it made for an interesting book.
Should I read it?
This was a good book, but just missed being a great book. I did not always connect to the characters. The problem was not that the characters had such a different life- but that the author often failed to connect us to them emotionally. The author managed to keep us at a distance from most of the characters. Rarely, and usually with Samuel, do we get to connect emotionally. This disconnect kept me from rating the book higher. Although I found myself rooting for Loo and Samuel it was not with the fervor I experience with some books. However the writing is good, the plot keeps moving along, and the characters are interesting- if not relatable. Having written all that- the quote below should convince you this book is worth the time!
Quote-
"It was like looking in a mirror. The same flickering hope in Loo, the same desperate need to be loved, was right here in Marshall's mother. And it was in Principal Gunderson, clutching Lily's waist in that old prom photo. And it was in Agnes, pressing her feet into the stirrups, listening for her child's cry. And it was in Hawley, mourning with his scraps of paper in the bathroom. Their hearts were all cycling through the same madness- the discovery, the bliss, the loss, the despair- like planets taking in orbit around the sun. Each containing their own unique gravity. Their own force of attraction. Drawing near and holding fast to whatever entered their own atmosphere. Even Loo, penning her thousands of names way out at the edge of the universe, felt better knowing these others were traveling this same elliptical course, that they would sometimes cross paths, that they would love and lose love and recover from love and love again- because, if they were all going in circles, and Loo was Pluto, then every 248 years even she would have the chance to be closer to the sun."
If you like this try-
The Hearts of Men by Nikolas Butler
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews
Idaho by Emily Ruskovich
The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti
372 pages
What’s it about?
Loo knows her father is different than most men. Samuel Hawley is a loner with a criminal past. He and Loo lived on the run until he finally decided to settle down in his late wife's hometown. He wants to give Loo a more normal life. But will Samuel Hawley ever be able to out run his criminal past?
What did it make me think about?
This was another coming-of-age story but Loo's life does not resemble most people's. The author uses flashbacks of each bullet wound on Samuel's body to connect us to his past. It was an interesting technique and it made for an interesting book.
Should I read it?
This was a good book, but just missed being a great book. I did not always connect to the characters. The problem was not that the characters had such a different life- but that the author often failed to connect us to them emotionally. The author managed to keep us at a distance from most of the characters. Rarely, and usually with Samuel, do we get to connect emotionally. This disconnect kept me from rating the book higher. Although I found myself rooting for Loo and Samuel it was not with the fervor I experience with some books. However the writing is good, the plot keeps moving along, and the characters are interesting- if not relatable. Having written all that- the quote below should convince you this book is worth the time!
Quote-
"It was like looking in a mirror. The same flickering hope in Loo, the same desperate need to be loved, was right here in Marshall's mother. And it was in Principal Gunderson, clutching Lily's waist in that old prom photo. And it was in Agnes, pressing her feet into the stirrups, listening for her child's cry. And it was in Hawley, mourning with his scraps of paper in the bathroom. Their hearts were all cycling through the same madness- the discovery, the bliss, the loss, the despair- like planets taking in orbit around the sun. Each containing their own unique gravity. Their own force of attraction. Drawing near and holding fast to whatever entered their own atmosphere. Even Loo, penning her thousands of names way out at the edge of the universe, felt better knowing these others were traveling this same elliptical course, that they would sometimes cross paths, that they would love and lose love and recover from love and love again- because, if they were all going in circles, and Loo was Pluto, then every 248 years even she would have the chance to be closer to the sun."
If you like this try-
The Hearts of Men by Nikolas Butler
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews
Idaho by Emily Ruskovich
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