Hole in My Life

Read an Excerpt

Listen to the author discussing Hole in My Life at www.fsgkidsbooks.com

In the summer of 1971, Jack Gantos was an aspiring writer desperate for adventure, college cash, and a way out of a dead-end job. For ten thousand dollars, he recklessly agreed to help sail a sixty-foot yacht loaded with hashish from the Virgin Islands to New York City, where he and his partners sold the drug until federal agents finally caught up to them in a bust at the Chelsea Hotel. For his part in the conspiracy, the twenty-year-old Gantos was sentenced to serve up to six years in prison.

In Hole in My Life, this acclaimed author of over thirty books for young people confronts the period of struggle and confinement that marked the end of his own youth. On the surface, the narrative tumbles from one intense moment to the next as Gantos pieces together the story of his restless final year of high school, his short-lived career as a smuggler, and his time in prison. But running just beneath the action is the story of how Gantos -- once he found himself locked up in a small, yellow-walled cell -- moved from wanting to be a writer to writing, and how this newfound dedication helped him endure the worst experience of his life.

Awards and Honors
American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults
American Library Association Notable Children's Books
Booklist Editors' Choice
Books for the Teen Age, New York Public Library
Bulletin Blue Ribbon, Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books
Horn Book Magazine Fanfare List
Massachusetts Children's Book Award
Michael L. Printz Award - Honor
Parents' Choice Award
Robert F. Sibert Award - Honor
School Library Journal Best Books of the Year

Recommendations
Booklist, American Library Association, Starred Review
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Horn Book, Starred Review
Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review
New York Times Book Review
Publishers Weekly
School Library Journal, Starred Review
VOYA (Voice of Youth Advocates)

Reviews
"This true tale of the worst year in the author's life will be a big surprise for his many fans . . . This is a story of mistakes, dues, redemption, and finally success at what he always wanted to do: write books." --Starred, Kirkus Reviews

"Jack Gantos' riveting memoir of the 15 months he spent as a young man in federal prison for drug smuggling is more than a harrowing, scared-straight confession: it is a beautifully realized story about the making of a writer." --Starred, Booklist

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Published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux
2002
ISBN: 0-374-39988-3
paperback: 0-374-43089-6

Also available in trade paperback:
2004
ISBN: 0-374-43089-6