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When an eavesdropping boy sets out to discover the obscure mysteries of his unravelling family, he uncovers instead what he least wants to know: the workings of his parents’ private lives. And even then he can’t stop snooping.
Miles Adler-Rich spies and listens in on his separating parents with the help of his friend Hector. The boys’ amateur detective work starts innocently enough. But in rifling through his mother’s dresser and snooping in her online diary, it isn’t long before they stumble into the outer reaches of the grown-up’s privacy – uncovering powerful information that will affect the family’s health, wealth and sanity.
Written with pathos and brilliant imagination, Casebook is an unflinching and very different coming-of-age story from one of America’s most gifted chroniclers of modern family life.
Miles Adler-Rich spies and listens in on his separating parents with the help of his friend Hector. The boys’ amateur detective work starts innocently enough. But in rifling through his mother’s dresser and snooping in her online diary, it isn’t long before they stumble into the outer reaches of the grown-up’s privacy – uncovering powerful information that will affect the family’s health, wealth and sanity.
Written with pathos and brilliant imagination, Casebook is an unflinching and very different coming-of-age story from one of America’s most gifted chroniclers of modern family life.
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Reviews
Wonderful … A compelling portrait of a quirky boy and his muddled family…. A funny and sad drama about intimacies, deception and growing up.
Delightful comic moments, and a surprising and poignant twist at the end.
The story captivates . . . Casebook is a sort of cross between The Catcher in the Rye and Harriet the Spy. But it is very much its own book, singular and haunting.
The captivating voice in Mona Simpson’s sixth novel belongs to Miles, 9, who has begun to spy on his parents . . . From beginning to end, it’s clear that in everything he does, Miles loves his mother. His indisputable, powerful, and consistent filial love gives Casebook enormous emotional power and makes the surprise ending a heart-breaker.
Utterly infectious.
Simpson's beautifully crafted novel shows us a reconfigured California family through the eyes of a smart, funny adolescent longing to keep hope alive.
There's warm humour and deep feeling in [Casebook's] portrayal of the vulnerability and messiness of family life.
Casebook is both a detective story and a coming-of-age novel - a hybrid of Harriet the Spy and Chandler's Phillip Marlow books.