But having Boaz home every day is almost worse than the everyday not-knowing of having him overseas fighting a war in a foreign desert. He won't come out of his room and he won't talk to anyone - all Levi can hear is his computer keys, the radio turned to static, and sometimes, late at night, the sound of his brother whisper-screaming. His mother's anguished pleading, his father's exasperated yelling, even Boaz's high school girlfriend, the mind-bogglingly gorgeous Christina Crowley, have no impact. Until the motherboard on Boaz's computer dies, and he asks Levi to borrow his laptop. Levi agrees - so long as he can have it after school for a couple of hours a day for homework and Facebook stuff.
Which is when Levi does something he's not proud of. He tracks everything Boaz is doing on the computer, and what he finds are maps - extremely detailed road maps of the east coast. And when he gets a rare glimpse into Boaz's room, there are maps covering every surface. Maps with names and addresses written all over them. So when Boaz announces that he's going to hike the Appalachian Trail over the summer, Levi doesn't know what his brother is really up to, but he knows it sure isn't hiking in the mountains.
With the help of his grandpa Dov and best friends Pearl and Zim, Levi decides he's going to do whatever it takes to understand his brother's choices and to make his brother understand his. Sometimes, there are things a brother knows - and sometimes, there are things a brother has to know. By turns heartbreaking and hopeful, heavy and flippant, angry-making and laugh-out-loud funny, The Things a Brother Knows is, at its heart, just a story of two guys figuring out what it means to be brothers. For anyone who's known someone serving overseas, thought about joining the military, questioned their own beliefs about war and serving their country, or just anyone with a brother, Levi and Boaz's journey will strike a chord. Don't miss this quick, powerful read!
Megan
(who just finished the deliciously quirky romantic comedy Beatle Meets Destiny by Gabrielle Williams!)