How to Find Your Way in the Dark: The powerful and epic coming-of-age story from the author of Norwegian By Night

Derek B. Miller

Jul 2021 · Random House

About this ebook

'Compelling and deeply satisfying.' Booklist
'[A] terrific coming-of-age story . . . Readers will root for Sheldon, a memorable survivor, every step of the way.' Publishers Weekly
'Miller juggles each element effortlessly. His character portraits are indelible, often heartbreaking. At times this novel moved me to tears' The New York Times
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It's 1936, war is brewing, tempers are running high, and by his thirteenth birthday, Sheldon Horowitz has been orphaned - twice. While a terrible accident took his mother, Sheldon is convinced that his father was murdered. But no-one else thinks so, least of all the police.

Determined to track down the culprit, and leaving behind his only friend Lenny, Sheldon moves to Hartford, Connecticut to live with his uncle. He is told to keep his head down and forget the past. But that just isn't his style.

Fired up by his politically-minded cousin Abe (and quite possibly in love with other cousin Mirabelle), he sets out on a quest to discover the truth that will take him from industrial Hartford to a ritzy hotel in the Catskills, back to his childhood home and finally on to New York.

Sheldon quickly discovers that it's a jungle out there, and to survive, he will have to learn to make his own luck. Fortunately, that's one thing he's very good at...

A tragic-comic coming of age story like no other, for fans of All The Light We Cannot See, and Michael Chabon's The Adventures of Kavalier and Clay.

Ratings and reviews

“There was a dance tonight. Sheldon had forgotten all about the dance. How had he forgotten about the dance? He had forgotten about the dance because he was busy. He had a mafia assassin to frame, a thief to rob, and vengeance to be delivered. These were (all) encompassing activities.” How To Find Your Way In The Dark is book one in the Sheldon Horowitz series by award-winning American-born author, Derek B Miller. When eleven-year-old Sheldon Horowitz lost his mother to a theatre fire in 1937, he and his father, Joseph battled on. They missed Lila, even if they didn’t talk much about her, but Joseph and Sheldon were close: they connected. His father’s death, barely a year later, meant that Sheldon had to leave Whately, the woods he loved and his best friend, Lenny Bernstein, to live in Hartford with his older, city cousins and his widower uncle, Joseph’s younger brother Nate. Nate acted more from duty than love but, despite a lukewarm welcome from Abe and Mirabelle, he was soon sharing with Abe his theory, as earlier disclosed to Lenny, about the murder of his father, and his plan for revenge. The reception from his seventeen-year-old cousin surprises Sheldon, who expected scepticism. Abe is an intelligent and passionate young man who views the building fascism in Europe and the anti-Semitism in America (some blatant, some subtle or even insidious) with a concern absent in his father. Sheldon soon finds himself involved in an unlikely escapade with his cousins that nets him a snow globe of Cleveland. What follows is a marvellous tale: part crime fiction, part coming-of-age, part war story. There are jewel thieves and fences; arson; the mob and guns and a bag of cash; B24 bombers and Nazi U-boats and thwarted enlistment; summer jobs as bellhops and comedy routines and master keys. There’s infatuation and love and romance and marriage. Miller uses apt headings rather than numbers mark the chapters. His characters are multi-faceted and many are appealing for all their very human flaws and poor decisions, because there’s also kindness and courage and loyalty and doing one’s patriotic duty even when country’s leaders don’t recognise the need. Sheldon is a thoughtful, rather earnest character whose loving upbringing has produced a young man with a strong sense of justice, one who thinks deeply on serious issues. Some of those issues, such as the reasons for America’s long delay in entering WW2, or America’s attitude to Jewish refugees, are certainly thought-provoking but, lest readers expect a humourless tome, it’s fair to say that this book is often laugh-out-loud funny. While there’s a bit of sitcom in there, it mostly comes from Sheldon: his inner monologue; and his dialogue with Lenny, with his cousins, with his dead father, with mirror-Sheldon. One particular crossed-purpose exchange is hilarious. This is eighty-two-year-old Sheldon from Norwegian By Night, but when he was still establishing his opinions, still developing his beliefs. Readers who met and liked the rather cranky, argumentative old man in Miller’s debut novel will enjoy this examination of his early life, looking at the boy to perhaps see some of what made the man. But more than that, this is also a darkly funny tale of wrongdoing and revenge, of integrity and principles, of loss and grief, of family and friendship. Exciting, moving, insightful and hugely entertaining, this is probably Miller’s best yet. This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by the author, NetGalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

About the author

Derek B. Miller's acclaimed debut novel Norwegian by Night won the CWA John Creasey Award for Best First Novel in 2013. A native of New England, Miller is the director of The Policy Lab and has worked in International Affairs with the UN, governments and think tanks for the past twenty years. His second novel, The Girl in Green, was recently shortlisted for the Crime Writers Association Steel Dagger for Best Thriller of the Year 2017. He lives in Oslo with his wife and children