All the Castles Burned [Paperback]

When Owen Webb, the son of working-class parents, receives a scholarship to the prestigious Rockcastle Preparatory Academy, the mysterious and enigmatic Carson Bly, an upperclassman from a wealthy and powerful family, befriends him. Their friendship, deepened through a love of basketball, becomes an obsession for Owen, who is desperate to avoid the growing trouble at home between his parents. When Owen's father is arrested for a shocking and unexpected crime, his family is torn apart, and Owen's anger and fear are carefully manipulated by Carson's mercurial and increasingly dangerous personality. Owen, who has fallen in love with Carson's beautiful but troubled sister, quickly finds himself caught up in a complex web of lies that threatens his once-promising future.

Praise forAll the Castles Burned

Emotional but never sentimental, ALL THE CASTLES BURNED contrasts privilege with working-class struggles for a gripping story of human resilience. Foreword Reviews,starred review

Nyes dark, unsettling debut novel exposes the vast differences between the privileged blue-blood students and the scholarship kids at Cincinnatis prestigious private day school, Rockcastle Preparatory Academy. . . . a suspenseful and memorable novel. Publisher's Weekly

This is a coming-of-age story with mysterious twists, a sports buddy novel that is surprisingly sensitive, and a novel of manners contrasting the aspirations of a dysfunctional middle-class family in 1990s Cincinnati with the over-the-top wealth of another dysfunctional family. It is both an appealing read and an introspective examination of the turbulence of male adolescence. Just as Nye's characters are glued to the O.J. Simpson trial, readers won't want to look away.Kirkus Reviews

To read Michael Nye's ALL THE CASTLES BURNED is to immerse oneself in a fully realized world, and a narrative so confidently executed by its author that l³.