California plains in the 1850s. After losing his mother to cholera on the wagon train out west, Emmet Campbell mostly fends for himself in the boom town of Colusa, California where he and his busy and ambitious father settle. Coming of age for Emmet means hiding in the corners of his father's new saloon, scrounging for food in the local brothels and finding refuge in tunnels underneath Colusa's Chinatown. While fighting off town bullies, an evil Irish stepmother, and his own learning disabilities, Emmet struggles to find his footing but never loses his curiosity about the world around him and the people in it. When forced into a court case to establish his identity and rightful inheritance after the untimely death of his father, Emmet must find family and identity in places he might not have reckoned for. But can he? With equal measures of the dark and the light, Campbell's boy is a tender tale about a boy whose fractured beginnings lead him on a journey through life that reveals what it can mean to be human. Early Praise
"In Campbell's Boy, Mary Kendall expertly paves an odyssey of Dickensian proportions, taking us deep into Colusa tunnels beneath the Chinatown of Emmet Campbell's childhood and across the tumultuous plain of an extraordinary life."-Robert Gwaltney, award winning author of The Cicada Tree
"Tender, charming and emotional. This inspiring story of Emmet Campbell, Campbell's Boy, tugs the heartstrings and immerses you in the sounds and smells, hardships and adventures of California in the 1850s."-Kate Braithwaite, author of The Girl Puzzle: A Story of Nellie Bly
"An engaging read about an historic case of social injustice.... Can Emmet Campbell rest in peace now?"-Cathie Dunn, author of Ascent, House of Normandy
"With a deft hand, author Mary Kendall brings to life the heartbreaking story of Emmett Campbell and the gritty world in which he lived."-Jean M. Roberts, author of The Angel of Goliad
A hand whipped out fast and grabbed his wrist pinning it down to the table. Emmet craned his neck and found himself under the baleful gaze of Old Man Chung. The man's voice came out in a high sing-song tone. "You drink it!" Emmet tried to work his wrist out from under but the man was stronger and kept it down. "You drink it!" he said again.
Emmet shook his head frantically and came out with, "No! I won't drink it!" Suddenly his wrist was free and the old man began to cackle, his body shaking with mirth and the effort of the cackle. Emmet swiveled away from the old man, the drink and the room. He ran into the tunnel with the cackle echoing louder and louder in his ears as he fled.
