The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley: A Novel

A coming-of-age novel and a literary thrill ride about the price we pay to protect the people we love most.

"A father-daughter road trip you won't soon forget."--Richard Russo

Samuel Hawley isn't like the other fathers in Olympus, Massachusetts. A loner who spent years living on the run, he raised his beloved daughter, Loo, on the road, moving from motel to motel, always watching his back. Now that Loo's a teenager, Hawley wants only to give her a normal life. In his late wife's hometown, he finds work as a fisherman, while Loo struggles to fit in at the local high school.

Growing more and more curious about the mother she never knew, Loo begins to investigate. Soon, everywhere she turns, she encounters the mysteries of her parents' lives before she was born. This hidden past is made all the more real by the twelve scars her father carries on his body. Each scar is from a bullet Hawley took over the course of his criminal career. Each is a memory: of another place on the map, another thrilling close call, another moment of love lost and found. As Loo uncovers a history that's darker than she could have known, the demons of her father's past spill over into the present--and together both Hawley and Loo must face a reckoning yet to come.

Praise for The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley

"A master class in literary suspense."--Ron Charles, The Washington Post

"Hannah Tinti's beautifully constructed second novel . . . uses the scars on Hawley's body--all twelve bullet wounds, one by one--to show who he is, what he's done, and why the past chases and clings to him with such tenacity. Nearly nine years after The Good Thief, Tinti has fused a cowboy-noir action adventure and a coming-of-age tale into a father-daughter love story."--The Boston Globe

"The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley is an adventure epic with the deeper resonance of myth. . . . Tinti exhibits an aptitude for shining a piercing light into the corners of her characters' hearts and minds. Her ability to lay bare their passions, portraying their vulnerabilities and violent urges with equal insight, leaves the reader at once shaken and moved."--O: The Oprah Magazine

"The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley is a gripping father-daughter road trip where the bad guys are never far behind. . . . Tarantino-like in its plot twists, action, and violence, the novel sweeps across the country and back and forth in time. Its structure feels as meticulously crafted as a matchstick Taj Mahal."--Interview

"The Twelves Lives of Samuel Hawley is a thrillingly told tale that touches on the mythological and the mundane with equally compelling results."--Buzzfeed

"This is a surprising and celebratory father-daughter story told with astonishing language and scope."--BBC

"[A]n unforgettable novel that is one part coming-of-age, one part mystery, and all parts utter delight."--PopSugar

"Tinti's storytelling is masterful--she weaves together dozens of beautifully drawn characters."--NYLON

"Tinti knows how to blend emotional connections with engrossing plots."--The Huffington Post

"The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley is one part Quentin Tarantino, one part Scheherazade, and twelve parts wild innovation. Hannah Tinti proves herself to be an old-fashioned storyteller of the highest order."--Ann Patchett, author of Commonwealth