Winner of the 2017 Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production
A New York Times Bestseller
A Booklist Editors’ Choice Audio
An AudioFile Best Audiobook of the Year
A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year
A Shelf Awareness Best Book of the Year
A Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book
Winner of the Indies Choice Book Award                             
Winner of the Sydney Taylor Book Award

"Exquisite.

Winner of the 2016 Odyssey Award for Excellence in Audiobook Production

An exceptionally moving story of triumph against all odds set during World War 2, from the acclaimed author of Jefferson’s Sons and for fans of Number the Stars.

Equal parts haunting and horrifying, this literary horror novel gives readers insight into the mind of a controlling homicidal man and the son who must stop him. 

"Marvin Burke is one of the great monsters of literature, a figure of immense, credible terror and savagery.

Grave-robbing. What kind of monster would do such a thing. It's true that Leonardo da Vinci did it, Shakespeare wrote about it, and the resurrection men of nineteenth-century Scotland practically made it an art. But none of this matters to Joey Crouch, a sixteen-year-old straight-A student living in Chicago with his single mom.

It all starts with a school essay.
 
Twelve-year-old Gratuity “Tip” Tucci is assigned to write five pages on “The True Meaning of Smekday” for the National Time Capsule contest, and she’s not sure where to begin.