Here is a review from The Sheet DOUBLING DOWN ON “THE AUNTIES” Local author Debbie Boucher wins Lunch over with work of historical fiction By Lunch The Aunties By: Debbie Boucher Outskirts Press 352 p. “Crap,” I thought, when I saw the book lying there in the office. “The Aunties.” I hate the title, I thought to myself. There’s no way I want to read this book. And the cover screams out romance lit. Damnit. Now if it were a novel about a down-and-out poker player called “The Antes,” maybe, but ... And I’ve got cool aunts, sure, but I call them aunts. Aunties sound way too uptight and about 100 years old. So I did what any responsible publisher would in this situation, knowing that the book was written by a local author and that I had to read at least a few pages out of respect—I pawned it off on my wife and asked her to read the first 20 pages. “If it sucks, just tell me. You don’t have to read anymore.” Much to my dismay, my wife said it didn’t suck ... in fact, it was enough to keep her awake past 10 p.m.—my farm girl who normally passes out from exhaustion by 9:30. A promising sign. So I started reading. She’s right, I thought, it doesn’t suck. Before I knew it, I’d ripped through 60 pages. It’s actually pretty good. In fact, it’s the best work of fiction by a local author that I can recall over the past five years. The book, Boucher’s fourth, is a work of historical fiction. It stems from a family mystery concerning her paternal grandfather. As the story goes, one day the paternal grandfather disappeared. Just up and left his wife and five children. Word eventually filtered back that he had moved to South America (Brazil) but no one knew for sure. He was also rumored to be Jewish, but the other WASPish side of the family never spoke about it. An aunt and uncle eventually traveled down to South America to see if they could find him. Which they did—remarried, and with a new family, though the children of the new family were all named the same names as the children of his old family. When various family letters and archives got passed down to Boucher, she had renewed interest in this family lore. A DNA test which revealed her as 25 percent Jewish stoked the fires even more. This book (10 percent fact and 90 percent fiction, she says) is her attempt to imagine what really happened. It’s told from several points of view and well-paced. Boucher taught at Mammoth Elementary from 1985-2008. Her husband, Mike, also an educator, originally moved the family to Mam- moth in ‘85 to take a job as Vice- Principal of Mammoth High School. They have two daughters. Nicole, whose family recently survived the Ventura wildfires, is an art teacher. Jessica lives in Hollywood and just finished a stint as Script Coordina- tor/Assistant to the Show Runner for the Netflix series Longmire. Boucher will be signing copies of The Aunties this Saturday from 2-4 p.m. at the Booky Joint in Mammoth.

Goodreads Giveaways - Oblivia

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Oblivia

by Debbie Boucher

Giveaway ends February 21, 2018.

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