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Thad Nodine reads an excerpt from his book Touch and Go on True Fiction Radio

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* Publishers Weekly Starred Review *

“Nodine’s cinematic novel deserves to be hailed as one of the year’s finest fiction debuts. In addition to creating a memorable cast of characters . . . Nodine treats readers to a realistic portrayal of multi-cultural America. . . . An extended denouement and a last-minute plot twist will leave readers hoping that Nodine will pen a sequel.” — Publishers Weekly, Starred

“...Nodine’s novel is ultimately a winning debut, a stunning vision of the fractured modern American family seen through the heightened observations of a man who has embraced his disability”.—Booklist

“Touch and Go is a strong debut—a high-velocity vision quest that keeps surprising and surprising.” — Jonathan Franzen

“And the writing? Totally incredible. Set your skepticism about a blind narrator’s ability to present a fully-realized world aside because you. will. be. floored…“Touch and Go is worth reading for the uniquely crafted narration alone, but it has much more to recommend it. Nodine draws out his characters’ flaws in the kindest possible way, nudging them toward complete humanity, while he examines the meaning of families—those we’re born into and those we create—and our boundless capacities for love and hurt.Touch and Go marks the arrival of an astounding new voice in fiction and is destined for this year’s “Best Of” lists, no doubt.” - The Book Lady’s Blog

“Touch and Go is a novel of imagination and compassion, in which a blind man tries to escape the dislocating wounds of his past on a cross country trip into the eye of a hurricane. Nodine’s prose is clear and nuanced, and his band of quixotic characters are handled with intelligence. There is danger and joy in this book, and it sticks in the mind like a lyrical puzzle.”— Elizabeth McKenzie

“The tension builds between these unforgettable characters until the explosive, heart-wrenching finish. Touch and Go manages to be both brutal and sweet at the same time.”
— Micah Perks, author of Pagan Time.

“Touch and Go is a fascinating story that delivers a portrait of the resilience embedded in disability cultures. In the novel’s family of characters, brokenness creates a community of need that offers each individual a chance to strip away co-dependence for interdependence. It’s elegant that it is the privilege of narration, rather than some ideological sidebar, that brings all that home.”
—Scott Rains, author of Rolling Rains Report and national expert on travel, disability, and universal design

THAD NODINE

TOUCH AND GO

To escape an addiction, a young blind man in California steps into a station wagon with his friends and their foster kids to deliver a handmade casket to a dying grandfather in Florida. As they battle their way across the southern half of the nation, this rag-tag American family falls prey to love and lies, greed and violence, crime and Katrina.

With a voice reminiscent of John Irving, Nodine produces a classic “road-picture” novel that is part Travels with Charley, part As I Lay Dying, and part On The Road.

Touch and Go is a rich and rangy story about the careful and careless ways we treat each other—and ourselves—in a fast-paced, changing world. Kevin, the novel’s blind narrator, is one of the most perceptive figures in recent fiction. And his desire to do no harm is contagious. Through Kevin’s rich senses and boundless compassion, Nodine gives us a multicultural portrait of a true America. And he does so with deep affection for everyone along the way.

$16.95 - $17.95 CAN | Paperback with flaps | 6x9 | 352 pages

September 2011

ISBN: 978-1-60953-061-7 | Carton Quantity: 20

EISBN: 978-1-60953-062-4

I first heard the lilt of Isa’s voice in group counseling, but I spoke with her first in a hallway, where she stopped me with a soft hand on my arm. I knew who it was before she spoke; back then she wore a cheap fragrance several traces too sweet.
I turned my face to hide my scar.
“You don’t have to be shy with me,” she said, bringing my chin forward with her hand.
“You’re quite striking.” I drew her hand away from my chin because I wanted to touch her fingers, which were thin and long, with fingernails bitten too short. Her palm was soft.
“Do you know me?” she said.
“Isa,” I said.
She brushed full into me, enlivening my chest with her breasts before stepping back. “You’re cute when you blush. Do you know what I look like?”
I savored the lilt in her voice and her friendly laugh, but I figured she was playing to an audience, so I waited for the chuckles of others. There were none. No sounds of people at all. But still I couldn’t let myself relax. “Is that important,” I said, “how you look?”
“You’re right,” she said. “It’s more important how we feel.” She lifted my hand to her face and dragged my fingers through her hair. She let me feel her long neck and the way her throat jiggled as she laughed. She traced my hand along her shoulders, arms and thighs. Her skirt clung to my fingers as if the material were on my hand instead of her hips. My fingertips tingled and my breathing quickened. She had on a halter top that gave her an open back and held her breasts like pendulums; I knew because she traced my fingers along her stomach and up under the fullness so pliable and resistant through the thin cotton—all of which made me grin like a goof.

Thad Nodine grew up in Florida and now lives in Santa Cruz. His fiction and nonfiction have appeared in many magazines. Touch and Go, which won the Dana Award for the Novel, is his first novel.

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