Boy He Left Behind

Mark Matousek has produced [a] riveting account of his searchat age 38, with the help of a private detectivefor the father who abandoned him at age four. A searing meditation on the psychic harm suffered by men and women without fathers, this wise odyssey wrestles with questions of life and death and the search for the meaning of ones existence.Publishers Weekly(Starred Review)I was four years old when my father came back to kidnap me, begins this gripping memoir about Matouseks search for James Matousek, the drifter father he never knew. Matousek chronicles his compelling search for his own father by hiring a detective and reveals his own life as he follows the hard-bitten investigator from one dead-end to the next.Described by theNew York Timesas part reminiscence, part detective story, part spiritual musing, this memoir is more than the story of one mans search for his father; it is also a look at the meaning of life and how fathers contribute to that meaning.