Leave Myself Behind

By: Bart Yates

Narrated by: Graham Halstead

Meet seventeen-year-old Noah York, the narrator of Bart Yates's astonishing debut novel. With a mouth like a truck driver and eyes that see through the lies of the world, Noah is heading into a life that's only getting more complicated by the day.

His dead father is fading into a snapshot memory. His mother, the famous psycho-poet, has relocated them from Chicago to a rural New England town that looks like a bad advertisement for small-town America. He can't seem to start a sentence without using the "f" word. And now, the very house he lives in is coming apart at the seams—literally—torn down bit by bit as he and his mother renovate the old Victorian. But deep within the walls lie secrets from a previous life-mason jars stuffed with bits of clothing, scraps of writing, old photographs—clues to the mysterious existence of a woman who disappeared decades before. While his mother grows more obsessed and unsettled by the discovery of these homemade reliquaries, Noah fights his own troubling obsession with the boy next door, the enigmatic J.D.

Part Portnoy, part Holden Caufield, Noah York is a touching and unforgettable character. His story is one of hope and heartbreak, love and redemption, of holding on to old wounds when new skin is what's needed, and of the power of growing up whole once every secret has been set free.

©2003 Bart Yates (P)2023 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

One of my favorite.

I first read this book in 2003. Now that I can’t read very well cause my eye sight isn’t the best. I’m so happy I could listen to this book. Takes me back to my high school days. Thank you.

There is something all sorts of off

There is something all sorts of off in the households of Noah & JD. Together they try and figure it all out. I enjoyed this story