See You Around

A heartbreaking, witty, coming-of-age tale perfect for fans of Fredrik Backman in which a shattered Dutch teen arrives in rural 1990s Manitoba for a fresh start, armed only with his yellow Walkman and his beloved American rock cassettes. While there, he’ll skin animals, sell Jesus-themed t-shirts in the mall, and see the best and worst of humanity.

Milo never told his family in the Netherlands what happened in the parking lot or why he stopped going to school. When he asks them to find him a chance to start over, his grandmother secures him a spot with a strict Dutch family in rural Manitoba. Milo packs his Walkman, his Queen and Meat Loaf tapes, dons a discounted purple ski-suit, and travels more than six thousand kilometres.

What he finds in Canada is nothing like what he expected, as he struggles with the brutality of his hosts, the land, the religion he's meant to be reconciling with, and the demons he still can't shake. But Milo has a quick wit, a smart mouth, and a knack for finding the few glimmers of beauty around him. Soon he even has friends—one teenager, one toddler, and one animal.

Love and loss are two sides of the same coin though, and life's tests for Milo are far from through. A coming-of-age tale that sold more than one hundred thousand copies in Lex Paleaux's native Netherlands, See You Around is a raw, honest, heartbreaker of a novel about the power of humour, music, and hope in the darkest of days.