The Home

When Freeman Mills, a 12-year-old boy with the power to read minds and an endearing affinity for Clint Eastwood movies, arrives at the former mental institution known as Wendover Home in the Southern Appalachian mountains, he vows to tolerate the facility's psychological treatments and religious rhetoric, but refuses to make friends or reveal his ESP. He soon finds out, however, that no one keeps secrets within the aging walls of Wendover—despite the best efforts of its administrators, doctors and counselors, many of whom are involved in conducting risky shock-therapy experiments on the children. When the research goes awry, Wendover and its inhabitants get caught between the real world and the "deadscape"—a parallel universe in which long-buried ghosts from the mental institution haunt the living. Nicholson (The Red Church ) offers plenty of faith-challenging questions as the tale moves briskly to its unexpected conclusion, yet not without losing some credibility. Freeman and other young characters are given dialogue and thoughts well beyond their years, while the deadscape is at times more confusing than scary. Agent, Ian Kleinart at the Literary Group International . (Aug.)