Introspective

Andrea Cheng's latest offering, WHERE DO YOU STAY? (Boyds Mills Press 2011) is a thoughtful and introspective novel. Of course, so is our main character and narrator, Jerome. Jerome's mother has recently dies of cancer and Jerome has gone to live with his aunt and cousins. It is a difficult adjustment, of course. However, one day Jerome encounters Mr. Willie, the person who will create a great impact on him though he does not surmise that at their first meeting. Mr. Willie is living (illegally) in an abandoned carriage house and ekes out a living doing odd jobs in the neighborhood. Jerome and Mr. Willie begin work on a wall and a garden at the abandoned house, work that allows time for each of them to begin to get to know the other. This is a slim novel that will touch the lives of many readers, especially those who are, like Jerome, living inside themselves and not letting many others inside. <215>