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When We Get There
Over the course of one winter in 1974, in the coal-mining town of Banning, Pennsylvania, the youngest member of a large and boisterous Eastern European family gives himself a tall to find his mother, who recently disappeared without explanation. Lucas, an only child whose father died several years earlier in a coa-mine blast, lives with the legacy of loss. Despite his heavy inheritance, Lucas is still just a thirteen-year-old boy puzzling out the world around him. He shuttles between the homes of his family elders whose old-world ways he can't quite understand. When Zoli, his mother's embittered admirer, takes it upon himself to find his lost love, violence and retribution escalate until no one, especially Lucas, is safe. As he struggles to find his place in this unsettling landscape, Lucas's extended family and close-knit ethnic community circle around him. Set against the collapse of the industry that has sustained the family and the town for generations, When We Get There is a startling tale of one family's long winter―and the spring that eventually comes hard on winter's heels.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published December 1, 2008
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832 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
August 17, 2009
I liked this better than any other recent contemporary novel that I've read. It deserved more attention than it received. Her style reminds me of Margot Livesy, elegiac and beautifully crafted, with a genuinely unique perspective.
August 5, 2013
Loved this book. Reads like a memoir, and the main character is just so awesome.
October 10, 2015
"She walked over to a pile of clothes, picked up a big dress, and held it up to the light. 'Oh my,' she whispered. 'What is this doing here?' She ran her hand over it. 'This was my mother's. She wore it all the time.' She laid it down, carefully, on top of the pile. 'All the time.'
'Is she dead?' I said.
'What's wrong with you? You remember her, don't you? You remember when she died?'
'Not your mother,' I said. 'Mine.'"
When We Get There was such a rich book, each word used perfectly. My heart ached deeply throughout this magnificent story. Lucas told everything with crisp detail, and it was hard not to taste a little bit of pear brandy and dirt on my lips.
Thirteen-year-old Lucas Lessar's father was killed in a mining accident a while back. Now recently Lucas's mother has disappeared without trace of where she's gone. All she leaves behind is a note telling them not to look for her.
His mother's boyfriend, Zoli thinks that Lucas is hiding from him where his mother went. He's beat up Lucas to try to get an answer from him, and the intimidating man will do anything he can to find her.
Lucas's great-grandfather moved from Russia to America, with only a little bit of money, a list of addresses and names, and pear seeds. He settled in Banning, Pennsylvania, on a farm and grew his pear tree. Then when the tree budded, he'd put bottles over the buds, and pears would grow inside of the bottle. That's how he made his special pear brandy. The pear tree meant everything to him.
Staying with the elders of his family, Lucas stays mainly mute. He lives mainly with his grandmother, Slats. On a night near Christmas, in 1974, Zoli came and set fire to the beloved pear tree.
Lucas's great-grandfather went crazy, became ill, and was never the same after that.
Lucas must go through every day in a haze, seeing his great-grandfather go crazy, watching the farm fall apart. He spends his days wondering where his mother could have gone, and if he can find her. He thinks about the terrifying Zoli, and dreads that he's going to come back.
It's only a matter of time before things start to fold out in front of him.
This is story of pear trees and old tales. Of sickness and injury. Of vengeance and violence. Of dirt and mines. Of fire and snow, ice rinks and cigarettes. Smart goats, crazy relatives. Broken hearts and Croatian songs. Of vanishing people and trapped ghosts. Exploding emotions and running away. Disappointment and understanding. This is a story of pure love.
I can barely put into words how much this book made my heart throb. This is the type of book that I've been looking for, for a long time. I can't explain it, I just found it on the library's shelf, and I knew that this was the perfect book I'd been looking for.
"My name is Lucas Lessar. I'm named after a dead great-uncle who was named after a dead baby. I'm the son of Mirjana and Jimmy Lessar. I'm the grandson of Raisa Janjovic. I live in Banning. I am writing this all down on this piece of paper to ask for the Tot-to to come back to the house here and look after us like Great-grandfather said it used to."
Every sentence was rich and warm to me. The characters were perfect in every way, and the overall story just shocked me. It's rare that I find stories that make me cry so hard. I love, love, love this book.
Tebe ljubiti ja neću prestati.
'Is she dead?' I said.
'What's wrong with you? You remember her, don't you? You remember when she died?'
'Not your mother,' I said. 'Mine.'"
When We Get There was such a rich book, each word used perfectly. My heart ached deeply throughout this magnificent story. Lucas told everything with crisp detail, and it was hard not to taste a little bit of pear brandy and dirt on my lips.
Thirteen-year-old Lucas Lessar's father was killed in a mining accident a while back. Now recently Lucas's mother has disappeared without trace of where she's gone. All she leaves behind is a note telling them not to look for her.
His mother's boyfriend, Zoli thinks that Lucas is hiding from him where his mother went. He's beat up Lucas to try to get an answer from him, and the intimidating man will do anything he can to find her.
Lucas's great-grandfather moved from Russia to America, with only a little bit of money, a list of addresses and names, and pear seeds. He settled in Banning, Pennsylvania, on a farm and grew his pear tree. Then when the tree budded, he'd put bottles over the buds, and pears would grow inside of the bottle. That's how he made his special pear brandy. The pear tree meant everything to him.
Staying with the elders of his family, Lucas stays mainly mute. He lives mainly with his grandmother, Slats. On a night near Christmas, in 1974, Zoli came and set fire to the beloved pear tree.
Lucas's great-grandfather went crazy, became ill, and was never the same after that.
Lucas must go through every day in a haze, seeing his great-grandfather go crazy, watching the farm fall apart. He spends his days wondering where his mother could have gone, and if he can find her. He thinks about the terrifying Zoli, and dreads that he's going to come back.
It's only a matter of time before things start to fold out in front of him.
This is story of pear trees and old tales. Of sickness and injury. Of vengeance and violence. Of dirt and mines. Of fire and snow, ice rinks and cigarettes. Smart goats, crazy relatives. Broken hearts and Croatian songs. Of vanishing people and trapped ghosts. Exploding emotions and running away. Disappointment and understanding. This is a story of pure love.
I can barely put into words how much this book made my heart throb. This is the type of book that I've been looking for, for a long time. I can't explain it, I just found it on the library's shelf, and I knew that this was the perfect book I'd been looking for.
"My name is Lucas Lessar. I'm named after a dead great-uncle who was named after a dead baby. I'm the son of Mirjana and Jimmy Lessar. I'm the grandson of Raisa Janjovic. I live in Banning. I am writing this all down on this piece of paper to ask for the Tot-to to come back to the house here and look after us like Great-grandfather said it used to."
Every sentence was rich and warm to me. The characters were perfect in every way, and the overall story just shocked me. It's rare that I find stories that make me cry so hard. I love, love, love this book.
Tebe ljubiti ja neću prestati.
August 10, 2009
I just finished reading When We Get There by Shauna Seliy. In this sad but beautiful novel, Lucas is a 13-year-old boy living in a mining town in 1974 Pennsylvania as the coal mines are beginning to shut down. But not before Lucas’ father is blown to smithereens in the King mine. Mirjana, Lucas’ mother, handles this by taking to her bed - until one day she disappears. Lucky for Lucas, his huge family of Russian, Hungarian and Croatian descent all live in Banning, and his grandmother and great-grandfather keep an eye on him.
But the kid is devastated…his mom adored her son and would take him along with her when she was lonely, filling his head with lovely stories about his interesting, and somewhat crazy, family. They seemed particularly close. Then a neighbor, Zoli, who is in love with Mirjana in a scary, obsessive sort of way, decides Lucas knows where she is, and stalks the poor kid. Zoli is violent, threatens Lucas and burns down the family’s treasured pear tree. (Great-grandfather brought the seeds from a Slovenian monastery, and makes pear brandy by fitting glass bottles over the pear bud so the fruit grows in the bottles. Imagine a tree with bottles on it blowing in the breeze…..) Anyway, Lucas starts cutting school to look for his mom himself.
I won’t tell more of the plot, so I won’t ruin it for anyone. But this is a beautifully written little book, with a magical imagery that blends with the family’s culture and superstitions to give the book a dream-like quality. Lucas is totally loveable, despite the fact that he’s a nightmare of a kid. In a totally understandable way.
But the kid is devastated…his mom adored her son and would take him along with her when she was lonely, filling his head with lovely stories about his interesting, and somewhat crazy, family. They seemed particularly close. Then a neighbor, Zoli, who is in love with Mirjana in a scary, obsessive sort of way, decides Lucas knows where she is, and stalks the poor kid. Zoli is violent, threatens Lucas and burns down the family’s treasured pear tree. (Great-grandfather brought the seeds from a Slovenian monastery, and makes pear brandy by fitting glass bottles over the pear bud so the fruit grows in the bottles. Imagine a tree with bottles on it blowing in the breeze…..) Anyway, Lucas starts cutting school to look for his mom himself.
I won’t tell more of the plot, so I won’t ruin it for anyone. But this is a beautifully written little book, with a magical imagery that blends with the family’s culture and superstitions to give the book a dream-like quality. Lucas is totally loveable, despite the fact that he’s a nightmare of a kid. In a totally understandable way.
September 3, 2023
13 year old boy from an Eastern European community in Pennsylvania mining region in the 70’s when most of the coal mines have closed. He is searching for his mother who disappeared suddenly. Being raised by his grandmother and great grandfather. Funny, sweet, and sad, and full of the culture of this family and community.
November 14, 2019
So Good
This book would make a good heartfelt atmospheric movie. It was a little like Catcher in the Rye style had that boy been of Ukrainian, coal-mining descent. I couldn’t stop reading it.
This book would make a good heartfelt atmospheric movie. It was a little like Catcher in the Rye style had that boy been of Ukrainian, coal-mining descent. I couldn’t stop reading it.
October 21, 2018
Hard to get through, it may be better thought of as short stories about a boy in a mining town who goes through loss. Nice historical/cultural references.
April 11, 2013
3-4 stars. Good, but I don't know why. The story is about a kid from an Eastern European immigrant family that lives in a mining town and is haunted by misfortune. Some kindle quotes:
Without the Croatian navigators, my father said, there would be no coal mines in America because there would be no America. So it was our own fault we had to work them. - location 176
Every morning when he was getting ready to go into the mine, my mother would lodge a piece of cotton between his pinky toe and the one next to it. This way if there was an accident, we could know him from his piece of cotton. But the real reason she did it was to make sure nothing would happen in the first place. To her mind, if she spent the morning preparing for a disaster, there wouldn't be one. - location 177
I could never tell the dogs apart from each other or even tell how many of them there were. It was more like they were a part of him than that they were separate animals. When he walked the property, they'd swirl around him like a wide cape. - location 359
There weren't any lived-in houses down there besides his, just a couple of empty places with their porches so tilted that they looked like ships on a rough sea. - location 715
In the woods all around Banning were left-behind blasting caps, lamps, hard hats, signs in ten different languages saying Danger, saying Watch Your Head. Abandoned block ovens and beehive ovens, empty boiler houses, wash houses, lamp houses, and machinery sheds. Pieces of mantrips, machine loaders, coal cutters, and pickaxes. Sometimes filing cabinets, chairs, blueprints, folders full of maps and lists of numbers, big old heavy black telephones with letter exchanges written on them. It was as if there were a sea someplace nearby full of all you needed to make a mining town and that it washed up in Banning, - location 877
"How soon? Now? Where is my boots? Today we are go there?" "Not today." "Tomorrow?" "All right, whatever you say." "Tell my boots that tomorrow, we are going. We have to get there. I have to start buying animals, planting things for them." "Tell your boots?" "Make them ready." - location 1565
In the space after the singing, the yelling, and the fighting, a heavy silence opened up. I'd been trying to figure out all day why there was so much more fighting and cursing than usual, and I finally understood that they'd been trying to drown out the quiet of Great-grandfather's voice being gone. - location 1815
Without the Croatian navigators, my father said, there would be no coal mines in America because there would be no America. So it was our own fault we had to work them. - location 176
Every morning when he was getting ready to go into the mine, my mother would lodge a piece of cotton between his pinky toe and the one next to it. This way if there was an accident, we could know him from his piece of cotton. But the real reason she did it was to make sure nothing would happen in the first place. To her mind, if she spent the morning preparing for a disaster, there wouldn't be one. - location 177
I could never tell the dogs apart from each other or even tell how many of them there were. It was more like they were a part of him than that they were separate animals. When he walked the property, they'd swirl around him like a wide cape. - location 359
There weren't any lived-in houses down there besides his, just a couple of empty places with their porches so tilted that they looked like ships on a rough sea. - location 715
In the woods all around Banning were left-behind blasting caps, lamps, hard hats, signs in ten different languages saying Danger, saying Watch Your Head. Abandoned block ovens and beehive ovens, empty boiler houses, wash houses, lamp houses, and machinery sheds. Pieces of mantrips, machine loaders, coal cutters, and pickaxes. Sometimes filing cabinets, chairs, blueprints, folders full of maps and lists of numbers, big old heavy black telephones with letter exchanges written on them. It was as if there were a sea someplace nearby full of all you needed to make a mining town and that it washed up in Banning, - location 877
"How soon? Now? Where is my boots? Today we are go there?" "Not today." "Tomorrow?" "All right, whatever you say." "Tell my boots that tomorrow, we are going. We have to get there. I have to start buying animals, planting things for them." "Tell your boots?" "Make them ready." - location 1565
In the space after the singing, the yelling, and the fighting, a heavy silence opened up. I'd been trying to figure out all day why there was so much more fighting and cursing than usual, and I finally understood that they'd been trying to drown out the quiet of Great-grandfather's voice being gone. - location 1815
August 26, 2007
This book is beautiful. It is a terrific debut novel. It is wry and funny and touching and full of hopes and promise. The narrator looks back on the winter he was 13 and his mother disappeared. I love this passage, about his mom and her would-be suitor, Zoli:
"Everyone said my mother looked like Hedy Lamarr. The way Zoli looked at her, you'd think she was Hedy Lamarr. He liked to say it was against the law to be as beautiful as she was, and then he'd pick up the phone and pretend to call the police or the fire company. Sometimes he did call the police or the fire company.
He thought the two of them should get married, but she didn't think so. She told him she'd stay a widow until she stopped dreaming about my father, and that she would probably never stop dreaming about my father. One of the times Zoli proposed, he took her out behind the Plate Glass and set up a sheet of blue tinted glass between two trees. They watched the sun go down behind it. When she said no, he spread out his arms and walked through it.
[My grandmother] said he was a gypsy with no sense. My mother said he just didn't understand some things. Love, she told me, didn't have anything to do with walking through a piece of glass."
"Everyone said my mother looked like Hedy Lamarr. The way Zoli looked at her, you'd think she was Hedy Lamarr. He liked to say it was against the law to be as beautiful as she was, and then he'd pick up the phone and pretend to call the police or the fire company. Sometimes he did call the police or the fire company.
He thought the two of them should get married, but she didn't think so. She told him she'd stay a widow until she stopped dreaming about my father, and that she would probably never stop dreaming about my father. One of the times Zoli proposed, he took her out behind the Plate Glass and set up a sheet of blue tinted glass between two trees. They watched the sun go down behind it. When she said no, he spread out his arms and walked through it.
[My grandmother] said he was a gypsy with no sense. My mother said he just didn't understand some things. Love, she told me, didn't have anything to do with walking through a piece of glass."
June 11, 2007
This beautiful coming-of-age story will appeal to adults, but kids will like it too because the narrator, the boy Lucas, is real: confused, determined, funny, surprising, and sometimes reckless. Wonderful characters people the story: Lucas' immigrant great-grandfather whose pear tree provides the symbolism; his grandmother with the improbable and perfect name, "Slats"; Zoli, the passionate and violent suitor who menaces Lucas as both of them search for Lucas' missing mother. The imagery is outstanding and the story will linger long after you turn the last page.
August 16, 2015
A beautifully written book, an interesting period in our history in an area- Pennsylvania - I had always imagined as fully civilized and a bit staid. You will fall in love with Lucas Lessar and his salty Aunt Slat and even his great grandfather and they will all wring your heart of tears. Shauna Seliy paints a world for us to visit, and does it beautifully. I love the way the tales from the old country become the stories and songs of every generation of this family, and how they are bound one to another by those tales and their love. Another I will keep, and read again.
February 16, 2008
An exquisite first novel from a native Pittsburgher. Told from the perspective of a 13-year-old boy looking for his mysteriuosly missing mother as he lives in the tight-knit Eastern European community of a dying mining town in SW Pennsylvania. I read it because the author's mother was my boss at the time and was immensely relieved to find that I wouldn't have to tiptoe around my response. It really is a terrific novel. Would be fun for a book group.
December 18, 2008
I don't remember how I learned of this book, but I read it this week and quite liked it. It takes place in a mining town and the main character is a 13-year-old boy who has been abandoned by his mother, leaving him to live with his grandmother. In addition to a somewhat eccentric great-grandfather and a crazy ex-boyfriend of his mother's, townspeople fill out the rest of the characters. This is the author's debut novel and I'll be interested in where her career goes from here.
December 26, 2015
It was ok. My least favorite part was a lot of language in the book, cussing that pulled me away from the story. Going back, I might not have read it if I had known how much I would have to power through.
There were some rich and interesting cultural things, and sadness about a time of lawlessness that we usually don't have now. A lot about Russian superstitions, but also about a kid who is growing up, and sees some strength in some of those traditions.
There were some rich and interesting cultural things, and sadness about a time of lawlessness that we usually don't have now. A lot about Russian superstitions, but also about a kid who is growing up, and sees some strength in some of those traditions.
November 1, 2007
This is a gorgeously written book, full of heart. It's about a boy growing up in a small mining town near Pittsburg, PA, and his relationships with his mother (who goes missing), his grandmother, his elderly Great-grandfather, and the rest of his close-knit community. The themes are universal and the voice is wonderful and fresh. Read it.
December 9, 2012
No Offense to the author, but I hated this book. The story line was confusing until the middle of the book. I felt the characters were not well established in the first few chapters and the story line seemed to bounce back and forth in time without a true reason why. The story line was very confusing and scattered.
December 6, 2012
No spoilers.
I stepped a bit out of my usual genre to read this at a friend's suggestion. I'm glad I did! Primarily, the book is exceptionally well-written with a voice that draws the reader in. I felt that the author must have had actually known these people and lived in this place to bring it to life so well, though I have no idea if that is true.
I stepped a bit out of my usual genre to read this at a friend's suggestion. I'm glad I did! Primarily, the book is exceptionally well-written with a voice that draws the reader in. I felt that the author must have had actually known these people and lived in this place to bring it to life so well, though I have no idea if that is true.
Read
July 16, 2007This was a good book--kind of like a lazy evening at home, the book was patient and laid-back, yet kept my attention.
Recommended to anyone who wants a break from fast-paced dramas, girly comedies, or heart-thumping thrillers.
Recommended to anyone who wants a break from fast-paced dramas, girly comedies, or heart-thumping thrillers.
August 25, 2007
I liked how timeless this story was. It follows a boy from an immigrant family in a poor working class town. It could be taking place now or 50 years ago, but the powerful feelings of loss and confusion that he experiences are not any less vivid. Beautifully written.
March 26, 2012
Beautiful writing. Just a wonderful quiet story about a boy coming of age trying to understand his family's past and find his part in all of it. Delightful characters. This is the author's debut novel and I'm looking forward to more of her work.
January 16, 2013
At first I could not get into this and wondered why I bought it. but i ended up looking forward to finding out what happenef. also enjoyed the family and friends and relationships they developed. if i could do half stars i wouldsay 3.5.
December 22, 2012
I thoroughly enjoyed this beautifully written book. The writing was excellent and vivid to the point in which I felt like I was really there. The character development was brilliant. I could not put this book and down. I hope to see more from this author.
March 21, 2013
I had high hopes for this book, based on previous Goodreads reviews, but I found it to be really strange, with shallow characters and bizarre storylines. I found myself skimming at the end just to finish it. Would not recommend it!
Want to read
February 4, 2017This was a great read and was based upon the history of mining in small town America, in Pennsylvania. Having Croatian grandparents that came to America and a grandfather that worked in the mines upon his arrival in America, this was very touching about the many hardships many immigrants faced.
January 15, 2008
I bought this at an author reading (friend of a friend of a friend...) to be supportive, and I am VERY glad I did. This is an excellent first novel with well drawn characters both old and young.
October 5, 2007
A paler shade of "Housekeeping". Still, rich, textured and troubling. The most believable and unconstructed dialogue I've read in recent memory.
October 8, 2007
Atmospheric, well-written, poignant and mysterious story about life in a coal mining town in the 70s
October 29, 2009
Loved this book. It took me a while to finish it because I didn't want it to end. Loved the spare prose, the setting, and the finely drawn characters.
February 10, 2008
Her first novel : about a 13 year old boy trying to find his mother.
July 27, 2008
This was a GREAT book!!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews