Yesterday Road — Kevin Brennan

In this “coming-of-old-age” tale, Jack Peckham finds himself on a journey into his distant past, helped along the way by Joe Easterday, a young man with Down syndrome, and Ida Pevely, a middle-aged waitress with her own mountain of regrets. Jack has a hundred grand in cash that he can't explain, since he can't remember yesterday much less forty years ago. Setting out from Northern California for “points east,” he gets lost, carjacked, abandoned, and arrested, but he's always homing in on the one object of his inner drive -- home. With humor and plenty of unexpected turns, Kevin Brennan's second novel is a lyrical and poignant story of memory and identity, of how it is the whole of experience -- pain and regret along with love and pleasure -- that gives life its fullness. We all tow our histories behind us as we make our way down Yesterday Road.