The Man Who Came and Went
Mature Young Adult Literary Fiction
by Joe Stillman
The Man Who Came and Went, a novel of the new west, is a magically realistic story for the modern era that will tease your understanding and beliefs, and draw you into the mysteries of the universe, from the brilliant mind of Joe Stillman, acclaimed Academy Award nominated co-writer of “Shrek.”
Fifteen-year-old Belutha Mariah, our storyteller, is the oldest of three kids from three different fathers. Her life’s goal is to keep her dysfunctional mom, Maybell, from procreating yet again and then to leave the coffin-sized town of Hadley, Arizona the second she graduates high school.
Along comes the new grill cook at Maybell’s Diner, Bill Bill, a mysterious drifter with the ability to mind-read orders. As word spreads in Hadley and beyond, the curious and desperate pour into this small desert town to eat at Maybell’s.
Some believe Bill knows the secrets of the universe.
Belutha figures he’s probably nuts. But his cooking starts to transform the lives of locals and visitors, and Belutha finds her angry heart opening, as Bill begins to show her the porous boundary between this life and what comes after.
In a normal American town, something new and strange, and yet achingly familiar, begins to unfold.
Joe Stillman has brought us an ensemble of empathetic characters, all in the elusive search for happiness in this witty and poignant exploration of love, expectation, and mortality. I laughed, I cried, I loved it. – D.J. MacHale, New York Times bestselling author
REVIEW
5 out of 5
Wow. I don’t know how to explain how much I love this book – there’s just something about it, a certain je ne sais quoi that I can’t convey. It draws you in with a brilliant opening, and doesn’t let you go until the end. I can’t remember the last time I had a book hangover this bad, I had to just take a bit to recover from the journey I went on from cover to cover. I felt like I’d become so enmeshed in the character’s lives that I was there, living each day with them. They’re all unique, and exactly the kind of people you’d expect to see in small-town America…except Bill. I loved Bill, his way of viewing the world, the way he interacted with everyone. Belutha was a great narrator, and I could only hope for the best for her as soon as I met her. I cannot recommend this enough for readers looking for a unique book that will find its way into your heart in no time.
LEARN MORE
Amazon | B&N | Books-a-Million | Bookshop.org | IndieBound | Goodreads
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joe Stillman co-wrote “Shrek” for Dreamworks which earned him an Academy Award® nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Annie and BAFTA Awards.
Other produced features are “Beavis & Butthead Do America”, “Shrek 2”, “Gulliver’s Travels”, “Planet 51” and “Joseph King Of Dreams”.
In television, he was co-producer and writer on “King of the Hill,” for which he received two Emmy Award® nominations. He was a writer and story editor for Nickelodeon’s “The Adventures of Pete and Pete” and a writer on MTV’s “Beavis and Butthead”. More recently he worked on Nickelodeon’s “Sanjay And Craig” and “Kirby Buckets” for Disney. Other TV credits include “Albert” for Nickelodeon, “The War Next Door” for the USA Network, “Clueless”, “Doug” and “Danger And Eggs” for Amazon.