The Dunbar brothers were a force of nature. They lived alone with a menagerie of animals, their mother dead, their father AWOL. They fought to survive, they fought each other and they fought their memories. Clay was different somehow. He was just as tough on the outside but had a softer inside, he felt everyone's pain. This book is about Clay's story but is told by the oldest brother Matthew, and it begins with the return of their father after many years of leaving the boys to fend for themselves.

I was really anticipating this book. I was a HUGE fan of The Book Thief but didn't really like The Messenger. I am sorry to say that this book was a huge disappointment. It rambled and I think Markus Zusak was so caught up in trying to make the language figurative that it lost a lot of context. Much of the time I didn't understand the point he was trying to make. I was going to give it 50 pages, then went to 100 then 150. The story didn't get rolling until about page 200 but that was short lived. I did love the parts that really talked about the boys, their relationship and their parents history but the rest fell way short in my opinion. I am sure I missed a lot because I am not a very analytical reader but I was sorry I didn't stop at page 50.