Tom Gnagey

An Old Man in Winter Tom Gnagey

A retirement age old man and a 12-year-old orphan boy - both abandoned misfits in their own ways - meet one night under a streetlight on a dingy city street during a blinding blizzard. They spend time together and gradually learn about each other as they work to form a family relationship. Over time they begin to fix each other. In the process of growing to love each other, they each gradually come to love themselves. The question of adoption surfaces. The story moves more on thoughtful conversation and the reawakening of hidden potentials than on spine-tingling action and adventure, although along the way they have run ins with the authorities, mount a mini social revolution, and enhance the lives of dozens of orphans and seniors who have been thrown away by their families. This powerful piece of family life fiction, based in compassion and family love, is one of the years truly great reads.