What blooms from dust / James Markert.

By:

Markert, James, 1974-

Material type: Text

TextPublication details: Nashville, Tennessee : Thomas Nelson, [2018]Description: 337 pages ; 22 cmISBN:

9780785217411
078521741X (paperback) :

Subject(s):

Genre/Form:

Summary: Just as Jeremiah Goodbye is set to meet his fate in the electric chair, a tornado tears down the prison walls, and he is given a second chance at life. With the flip of a coin, he decides to return to his home town of Nowhere, Oklahoma, to settle the score with his twin brother Josiah. But upon his escape, he enters a world he doesn't recognize--one that has been overtaken by the Dust Bowl. And the gift he once relied on to guide him is as unrecognizable as the path back to Nowhere. After one jolt in Old Sparky, Jeremiah sees things more clearly and begins to question the mysterious circumstances surrounding the murders he was accused of. On his journey home, he accidentally rescues a young boy who follows him the rest of the way, and the pair arrive at their destination where they are greeted by fearful townspeople. When the Black Sunday storm hits the very next day, the residents of Nowhere finally begin to let the past few years of hardship bury them under the weight of all that dust. Unlikely heroes, Jeremiah and his new companion, Peter Cotton, try to protect the townspeople from themselves, but Jeremiah must face his nightmares and free himself from the guilt of flipping the coin on those men who died. Filled with mystery and magic, What Blooms from Dust is the story of finding hope in the midst of darkness and discovering the beauty of unexpected kindness.

Average rating: 0.0 (0 votes)

Holdings
Item type	Current library	Collection	Shelving location	Call number	Status	Notes	Date due	Barcode	Item holds
Adult Book	Phillipsburg Free Public Library	Adult Fiction	Adult Fiction	FIC MARKERT	Available	pap.ed.		36748002413427

Total holds: 0

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

"The closer he got, the brighter that red became. It was a rose--a rose that had no earthly business growing there, right in the middle of all that dust."

Just as Jeremiah Goodbye is set to meet his fate in the electric chair, he is given a second chance at life. With the flip of a coin, he decides to return to his home town of Nowhere, Oklahoma, to settle the score with his twin brother Josiah. But upon his escape, he enters a world he doesn't recognize--one that has been overtaken by the Dust Bowl. And the gift he once relied on to guide him is as unrecognizable as the path back to Nowhere.

On his journey home, he accidentally rescues a young boy, and the pair arrive at their destination where they are greeted by darkened skies and fearful townspeople who have finally begun to let the past few years of hardship bury them under the weight of all that dust. Unlikely heroes, Jeremiah and his new companion, Peter Cotton, try to protect the residents of Nowhere from themselves, but Jeremiah must face his nightmares and free himself from the guilt of his past and the secrets that destroyed his family.

Filled with mystery and magic, this exquisite novel from award-winning author James Markert is a story of finding hope in the midst of darkness and discovering the beauty of unexpected kindness.

Includes discussion questions.

Just as Jeremiah Goodbye is set to meet his fate in the electric chair, a tornado tears down the prison walls, and he is given a second chance at life. With the flip of a coin, he decides to return to his home town of Nowhere, Oklahoma, to settle the score with his twin brother Josiah. But upon his escape, he enters a world he doesn't recognize--one that has been overtaken by the Dust Bowl. And the gift he once relied on to guide him is as unrecognizable as the path back to Nowhere. After one jolt in Old Sparky, Jeremiah sees things more clearly and begins to question the mysterious circumstances surrounding the murders he was accused of. On his journey home, he accidentally rescues a young boy who follows him the rest of the way, and the pair arrive at their destination where they are greeted by fearful townspeople. When the Black Sunday storm hits the very next day, the residents of Nowhere finally begin to let the past few years of hardship bury them under the weight of all that dust. Unlikely heroes, Jeremiah and his new companion, Peter Cotton, try to protect the townspeople from themselves, but Jeremiah must face his nightmares and free himself from the guilt of flipping the coin on those men who died. Filled with mystery and magic, What Blooms from Dust is the story of finding hope in the midst of darkness and discovering the beauty of unexpected kindness.

Reviews provided by Syndetics

Publishers Weekly Review

In this enchanting allegory, Markert (All Things Bright and Strange) crafts an imaginative tale of the Dust Bowl. In 1930s Oklahoma, Jeremiah Goodbye, known as the Coin-Flip Killer, was supposed to die in the electric chair, but a well-timed tornado spares his life and causes him to reconsider his past evil deeds. After being whisked away by the tornado, he decides to return to his hometown of Nowhere, Okla., with Peter, an odd young boy he rescues from the storm. Jeremiah has a score to settle with his twin brother, Josiah, who turned him in to the police and married the woman he once loved-but the unrelenting, almost supernatural weather may prove to be his toughest enemy. When a mammoth dust storm rolls across the plains and envelopes Nowhere, Jeremiah and Peter take on the Herculean task of clearing out their neighbors who are buried under a mountain of dust. Markert creatively portrays the timeless battle between good and evil, making for a powerful story of hope and redemption. (June) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Jeremiah Goodbye was supposed to die in the electric chair, but a tornado strikes, destroying the prison and killing everyone but him. He escapes with nothing but a nonfatal jolt. As is his habit, the one that earned him the nickname Coin-Flip Killer, he flips a coin to decide whether or not to go home to Nowhere. But after the electric jolt, Jeremiah feels like he sees things more clearly, and after accidentally rescuing a small boy, he must confront his nightmares and try to help the fearful people of Nowhere. Beautifully detailed descriptions of what life was like during the Dust Bowl, the desperation and feelings of helplessness, are contrasted with small tokens of beauty and bonds of friendship and family. Though heavily spiritual, Markert's (All Thing Bright and Strange, 2018) nondogmatic approach to the unknown will also appeal to mainstream readers. Historical fiction at its finest that makes the reader want to learn more about the time and the people who lived there, and those who left.--Gerber, Rebecca Copyright 2018 Booklist