The two lower covers are European translations.
He never speaks. He never makes eye contact. No one has ever touched him. They say he's retarded. Autistic. Strange. his name is Smitty, but everone calls him "The Alien," and Ginny is intrigued. She's been feeling like an aliend in a strange world since she and her family moved here from the West Coast. Against her first impulse, Ginny vows to make contact with Smitty. To be his friend.
But still waters run deep. And Smitty is like the ocean. Ginny soon finds herself being sucked under - going out too far. But Smitty is the one who could drown. Because the world he['s created is safe from love, from pain, from everything. There's no room for anyone else. At least - till Ginny comes along . . .
Kristen Randle has written a novel about the realities of abuse and growing up that is, at once, stunning, gutsy, lyrical and saddening - a story not easily forgotten.
