This was easily my favorite book of my 2024 year of reading, and coming from one of my favorite writers (and friends – his words, not mine), it is no surprise. It is very much unlike the rest of his writing, aside from the recent dips into children’s literature – but he is very much a writer for all ages, and I would say the same thing about this book, despite it being categorized as middle-grade fiction. It is very reminiscent of a short piece I spent some time with in the past, George Saunders...