The Vagabonds - Softcover

Nicholas Delbanco is the Robert Frost Collegiate Professor of English Literature and Language at the University of Michigan, where he directs the Hopwood Awards Program.

The three Saperstone siblings return to New York when their mother dies. Their mother, they learn, was the beneficiary of a trust of 15 shares of stock given to their grandmother by Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, and Thomas Edison, who called themselves "the vagabonds." In the nearly 90 years since its creation, the trust has grown to nearly two million dollars. The novel tells the story of how this influx of riches alters the children's relationships. Paul Boehmer reads with a soothing, understated style that meshes well with the novel. His depiction of the vagabonds is especially effective in conveying their strong, distinctive personalities. Inexplicably, the Saperstone children fail to search for the reason behind the gift, never learning that it was compensation for a Firestone employee's indiscretion that caused their grandmother to become pregnant (and subsequently lose the child). D.J.S. © AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine