cover image The Simple Gift

The Simple Gift

Steven Herrick. Simon Pulse, $9.99 (188pp) ISBN 978-0-689-86867-2

The third of Australian author Steven Herrick's free verse novels that began with Love, Ghosts, and Facial Hair, The Simple Gift, centers on 16-year-old Billy Luckett, who runs away from his alcoholic father to make his own way: ""I'm poor, homeless/ but I'm not stupid."" The poems are written from the points of view of Billy, Old Bill (who he meets while living in a train car) and Caitlin, Billy's love interest-a girl from a wealthy family who works at McDonald's.