- Title:
- The Universe Versus Alex Woods
- By:
- Gavin Extence
- Pages:
- 407
- Rating:
- 5
A rare meteorite struck Alex Woods when he was ten years old, leaving scars and marking him for an extraordinary future. The son of a fortune teller, bookish, and an easy target for bullies, Alex hasn’t had the easiest childhood.
But when he meets curmudgeonly widower Mr. Peterson, he finds an unlikely friend. Someone who teaches him that you only get one shot at life. That you have to make it count.
So when, aged seventeen, Alex is stopped at customs with 113 grams of marijuana, an urn full of ashes on the front seat, and an entire nation in uproar, he’s fairly sure he’s done the right thing …
Introducing a bright young voice destined to charm the world, The Universe Versus Alex Woods is a celebration of curious incidents, astronomy and astrology, the works of Kurt Vonnegut and the unexpected connections that form our world.
This was a brilliantly written and immaculately produced work. There’s just something about Alex, about the way he thinks and writes, which somehow hooks you and keeps you reading and wanting to read. I literally did not want to put it down.
I laughed out loud in places, and found others very solemn and thought-provoking. The whole message of the work falls very neatly into the libertarianism view, but there’s nothing forceful about it and it’s a rather beautiful, innocent novel which is one of the richest I’ve read this year.