Baxter's Requiem

Mr. Baxter is a 94-year-old resident of Melrose Gardens Retirement Home who meets Gregory, a 19-year-old boy who has suffered a heavy loss. Together, they escape from Melrose and head to the war graves of Northern France, where Baxter shares his memories and teaches Gregory about life, love, and seizing every last second they have while they're here.

\n Format: Paperback / softback
\n Length: 256 pages
\n Publication date: 06 September 2018
\n Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
\n

Let me tell you a story, about a man I knew, and a man I know.

Mr. Baxter is ninety-four years old when he falls down his staircase and grudgingly finds himself resident at Melrose Gardens Retirement Home.

Baxter is many things - raconteur, retired music teacher, rabble-rouser, bon viveur - but a good patient, he is not. He had every intention of living his twilight years with wine, music, and revelry; not tea, telly, and Tramadol. Indeed, Melrose Gardens is his worst nightmare - until he meets Gregory.

At only nineteen years of age, Gregory has suffered a loss so heavy that he is in danger of giving up on life before he even gets going.

Determined to save the boy, Baxter decides to enlist his help on a mission to pay tribute to his long-lost love, Thomas: the man with whom he found true happiness; the man he waved off to fight in a senseless war; the man who never returned. The best man he ever knew.

With Gregory in tow, Baxter sets out on a spirited escape from Melrose, bound for the war graves of Northern France. As Baxter shares his memories, the boy starts to see that life need not be a matter of mere endurance; that the world is huge and beautiful; that kindness is strength; and that the only way to honor the dead, is to live.

Baxter's Requiem is a glorious celebration of life, love, and seizing every last second we have while we're here.

\n Weight: 342g\n
Dimension: 153 x 233 x 19 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9781472153326\n \n