Beck’s Two Authors

The new YA book Beck has two authors. Not because they collaborated and co-wrote the book with two different voices, but because one of them passed away. Mal Peet, the original author of the story, has written some popular YA books including Tamar (2007). When he died in 2015 of Lung Cancer while writing the story, fellow YA author Meg Rosoff stepped in to finish the story. If you want to read the interview with Meg Rosoff where she talks about Peet and the process of taking over his story click here!

Here is a synopsis of the book: Born of a brief encounter between a Liverpool prostitute and an African soldier in 1907, Beck finds himself orphaned as a young boy and sent overseas to the Catholic Brothers in Canada. At age fifteen he is sent to work on a farm, from which he eventually escapes. Finally in charge of his own destiny, Beck starts westward, crossing the border into America and back, all while the Great Depression rages on. What will it take for Beck to understand the agonies of his childhood and realize that love is possible?

I have yet to read it but the book has garnered some stellar reviews so far.