A heartbreaking and uplifting read. While the voices of the five speakers were not always distinct, the story more than made up for any writing faults.

Four homeless people and a $13.5 million lottery ticket! Who would not love this? Happy reading.

One word: Fabulous! This book started out slow and I admit to a bit of resistance to it. But, boy, oh, boy, was I wrong. The story is incredible; moving, touching, funny, sad, and most of all humbling. As four homeless people struggle to survive, fate steps in and hands them everything they could ever possibly need or want. But at what cost? Winning a lottery changes things. There's no doubt about that, but as the old saying goes - You can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy. - and money cannot erase the streets completely. The struggle alters, but doesn't get any easier, really. The demons they faced on the street are the same demons they face in their new home on Indian Road.

This is one of my favourite books. I don't normally read passages of books I'm reading out loud to my family, but I did with this one.

Wagamese really got inside the head of his main characters here and made me feel like I was there too. Four of the main characters are homeless people, living in a large city: Amelia One Sky (also known as One for the Dead), Timber, Double Dick, and Digger. They have gradually found each other and now move through the major part of their day as a group. As the book begins, they decide to take refuge from the cold by going to a movie. They encounter the fifth main character, Granite, at the movie theatre, and continue to run into him as they keep going to movies. When Digger finds a cigarette package that still contains some cigarettes as well as money and a lottery ticket, their lives begin to change. The lottery ticket turns out to be a big winner, $13.5 million, but they can't claim the money as none of the four have identification. They bring Granite in to assist them. As their lives transform, we see how they adjust to their new situation. We also see how they got to be where they are now and how they deal with their pasts. How one sees the world is a big part of the plot.

This book didn't engage me at all. The voices of the characters blurred together. The way they spoke and shared their feelings and thoughts at length just didn't ring true. The story was hard to believe. I had to force myself to read it.

Deeply moving, authentic book. Except for a few places, very realistic. A good read for those who know the homeless and those that don't.

A story about going "home". Moving story that brought tears to my eyes.