Jedi Summer, by John Boden

About the Book:

A boy and his little brother wander through the loosely stitched summer of 1983. It was a magical one. Full of sun and surrealism, of lessons and loss, and of growing up and figuring it out.

Nestled in the mountains of Pennsylvania is a small town unlike any other. Things are strange here, always have been. People die but hang around, pets too. Everyone knows your name, and sometimes, a thing as simple as a movie coming to the local theatre is all it takes to keep you going.

“Jedi Summer drops the floor right out from under you, leaves you standing in a childhood that’s been rolling around inside your chest for too long. But you’d trade anything to stay there just one more day.” – Stephen Graham Jones, author of The Only Good Indians and My Heart Is A Chainsaw

Mark my words, John Boden is a writer you’re going to want to read so that five years from now, when everyone is raving about him, you can say, ‘Oh I’ve been reading him for years.’” – Brian Keene, author of Pressure and With Teeth

Delivers honest self-reflection without ever venturing into saccharine sentimentality or maudlin self-pity, and his picture of the uncanny summer of 1983 is as clear as a never-played VHS tape right out of the box.”- Bracken MacLeod, author of Stranded and Closing Costs

John Boden lives a stone’s throw from Three Mile Island with his wonderful wife and sons.A baker by day, he spends his off time writing, watching TV, or laughing with his wife. He likes Diet Pepsi, cheeseburgers, heavy metal, and sports ferocious sideburns. While his output as a writer is fairly sporadic, it has a bit of a reputation for being unique. He owes an unpayable debt to Ken Wood who invited him along at the start of Shock Totem and that singular act rekindled his love for writing, after ignoring it for 20 years. His books include: Dominoes, Spungunion,Walk The Darkness Down, as well as the collaborative novellas Out Behind The Barn (with Chad Lutzke), Rattlesnake Kisses, Cattywampus, and the forthcoming Black Salve (with Robert Ford) and Detritus In Love (with Mercedes M. Yardley). He thanks you from the bottom of his hairy heart, sincerely.