Last Sunday I told you about a great book I just finished called “The Good House” by Ann Leary. Now, before it’s due back at the library, I want to tell you about another bestseller I just finished and LOVED. It’s called “an Invisible Thread.”
I don’t know why it’s a small “a” in “an,” but getting over that, this book is so moving. It’s a true story about an 11-year-old panhandler, a busy sales executive and “an unlikely meeting with destiny.”
“Invisible thread” refers to a connection between people who are destined to meet. In this case it’s a young saleswoman who grew up on Long Island, close to my hometown. She’s walking on a busy street near her office when a poor kid asks her for money. First she ignores him and keeps walking. But something makes her turn around and go back, and she offers to take him to lunch.
She actually went back and took this boy to lunch. It sounds like a small thing but it’s kind of a big thing. Can you imagine doing that?
The two become friends. They share meals. She takes him to a ball game…
At one point she realizes he has no meals he can count on. She offers him a small daily lunch allowance or, if he prefers, a homemade lunch. He asks her if she can put his lunches in brown bags. She says yes, of course, but “Why brown bags?” He says because when a kid comes with his lunch in a brown bag it means there’s someone home who loves him. (Actually his mother does love him, but she’s a drug addict. She’s not able to care for him the way a parent should.)
Anyway, I won’t tell you how it ends. But just know this. I read 15 pages the first night. I finished it the second night and there are 238 pages. It’s a beautiful, touching story. The author is Laura Schroff and her childhood was no bed of roses; her dad was an alcoholic, but she didn’t let that hold her back.
If you read this book, let me know if you enjoy it as much as I did.
