A Sound Like Thunder
By Sonny Brewer
Ballantine, 288 pages
ISBN 0-345-47633-6

Returning to Fairhope, Alabama, the setting for his praiseworthy The Poet of Tolstoy Park, Sonny Brewer’s commendable new lyrical novel features Rove MacNee, who navigates through memoir and memory, recalling his youth on the eve of World War II.

Passionate about cast-net-fishing, sailing, and books—by Emerson, Twain, and Whitman—sixteen-year-old Rove in late 1941 finds himself overwhelmed by problems.