Walters Purple Heart, Catherine Ryan Hyde
Walters Purple Heart, Catherine Ryan Hyde
List: $16.99 | Sale: $11.89
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Walter's Purple Heart

Author: Catherine Ryan Hyde

Narrator: Kirby Heyborne

Unabridged: 7 hr 25 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/11/2017

Categories: Fiction, Ghost


Synopsis

Michael Steeb is an aimless twenty-one-year-old pot farmer in Central California in the 1980s. He has no real plans or interests . . . until the day he connects with memories of a life that seems to belong to someone else. That "spirit" is Walter, a young American soldier killed in World War II.

Michael's task is the near-impossible: to lead Walter's family to closure and peace, to deliver the real truth behind Walter's Purple Heart, and to somehow achieve the forgiveness absent for so many years so Walter can move on. Michael sets out to find Walter's best friend, Andrew, and Mary Ann, the fiancée Walter left behind. Mary Ann recognizes Walter in Michael immediately. But Andrew sets out to prove that Michael is the worst sort of con man.

Narrated in large part by Walter from beyond the grave, Walter's Purple Heart is a fast-paced war drama and a deeply felt romance, with a unique twist on the prospect of multiple lives. Catherine Ryan Hyde paints an enduring portrait of a life prematurely lost, and the endless ripples of consequence to those who loved him, in a microcosm that sheds light on the true gravity of war.

About Catherine Ryan Hyde

Catherine Ryan Hyde is the author of thirty published and forthcoming books. Her bestselling 1999 novel Pay It Forward, adapted into a major Warner Bros. motion picture starring Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt, made the American Library Association's Best Books for Young Adults list and was translated into more than two dozen languages for distribution in more than thirty countries. Her novels Becoming Chloe and Jumpstart the World were included on the ALA's Rainbow List; Jumpstart the World was also a finalist for two Lambda Literary Awards and won Rainbow Awards in two categories. More than fifty of her short stories have been published in many journals, including the Antioch Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, the Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, and the Sun, and in the anthologies Santa Barbara Stories, California Shorts, and Dog Is My Co-Pilot. Her short fiction received an honorable mention in the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest, a second-place win for the Tobias Wolff Award, and nominations for Best American Short Stories, the O. Henry Award, and the Pushcart Prize. Three have also been cited in Best American Short Stories.

Ryan Hyde is also founder and former president of the Pay It Forward Foundation. As a professional public speaker, she has addressed the National Conference on Education, twice spoken at Cornell University, met with AmeriCorps members at the White House, and shared a dais with Bill Clinton.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Aaron on June 01, 2012

While I adore Catherine Ryan Hyde, this book didn't quite work for me. I characters never came alive like I wanted them to, and though it was interesting, with past lives intermingling with modern day woes, the whole thing failed to reach through to touch me in a meaningful way.......more

Goodreads review by Kathy on October 27, 2013

I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED this book. It was such a refreshingly different story line. The truisms were plentiful, I highlighted several of them. I empathized with several of the characters, and hated to see the book end.......more

Goodreads review by David on September 16, 2019

Unbelievable, weird, bizarre. Those are the only words to describe this book. I'm surprised it got published. Ms Hyde's other books, the seven I've read were very good. This one????? But you know what...I cried at the ending. What a good writer she is!......more

Goodreads review by Anita on October 09, 2019

I was very excited about this book after reading the first chapter ending with "Besides, you know all this. You just forgot." This is Walter, the narrator speaking. Seeing things through his eyes, his past and his present, is quite an adventure with a lot to think about in living life much more than......more

Goodreads review by Sharon on October 30, 2019

This is a book about a reincarnated World War II soldier, Walter, who, 40 years after his death, comes back to get answers to some questions that have been keeping him from from moving on. He also wants to forgive the best friend who married his finance after his death. Walter decides to manifest hi......more