Brief Description
The owner of a secondhand store ("Satori Junk") just outside Detroit, finds his life changing all at once when his mother dies and he rummages in her basement for treasures. He meets Theresa, a thrift-attired junk goddess who shares his feelings for castaways, and he falls for her--hard.
Learn More about the Book
At last, the novel for everyone who has ever loved something secondhand the High Fidelity of garage sales, the On the Road of thrift shopping, The Moviegoer of the flea market. Richard owns a secondhand store ("Satori Junk") just outside Detroit. He's the kind of guy for whom not much happens, until it happens all at once: His mother dies. He rummages his parents' basement for good junk and finds (alongside "every purse my mother has ever owned since the Fifties") a box of photos that changes his view of everything. He falls apart over his mother's notes on his favorite meal in an old cookbook. He meets Theresa, a fellow hipster, a thrift-attired junk goddess who shares his feeling for castaways, and he falls for her hard. Along the way he acquires some junk wisdom about love and loss. Richard's inimitable, hilarious, philosophical, self-deprecating, yearning voice, and his sharp and loving eye for common foibles and unexpected virtues make for a comic novel crammed full of surprise and pleasure. Second Hand is peppered with insight as unpretentious and satisfying as the unexpected garage sale find. Junk, Richard tells us, "has taught me that to find new use for an object discarded is an act of glistening purity. I have learned that a camera case makes a damn fine purse or that 40 copies of 'Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass's Whipped Cream and Other Delights' may be used to cover a wall of a bedroom. . . . Junk has taught me that all will come to junk eventually, and much sooner than you think."
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Front Cover Glimpse
Richard sees treasure everywhere. In that old eight-track quadraphonic stereo, that pink granite bowling ball, or a Niagara Falls napkin holder. While most people scramble for the newest and the best, Richard searches for the odd and obsolete -- and sells it at his second-hand shop on the edge of Detroit.
Why does he do it? For Richard, junk is a way of life, a calling, and a passion. Until his comfortable second-hand life gets a first-hand jolt.
Richard's mother has died, and left behind a valuable house full of packed-away junk -- including some old photos that will change everything Richard thought about his parents. And then there's the hip, thrift-attired woman who comes into his store with more than junk on her mind.... Suddenly some very unexpected things are entering Richard's life, including some surprising revelations about love and loss -- and what's really important in life.
With an unerring blend of the comic and the poignant, Michael Zadoorian has written an unforgettable novel about knick-knacks, garage sales, romance, and the bonds we form with people and things -- the perfect story for anyone who has ever loved something second hand.
Review Quotes
1. "A colorful first novel...If you're a yard sale lover ... Second Hand may feel like a gift from the (Tiki) gods."
-- "The New York Times Book Review"
"Hooked me right away -- [Zadoorian] is a very entertaining writer, hip and funny."
-- Elmore Leonard, author of Pagan Babies
"Funny and moving, especially as it moves toward its surprisingly beautiful ending. A fine and wonderful novel."
-- Charles Baxter, author of Believers
"Anyone who has found delight in a thrift store, captured glee in finding that perfect scarf or that retro chair, will equally squeal with delight at this novel."
-- "Booklist"
"Incisively humorous and surprisingly poignant, this is a quirky, surprisingly tender coming-of-age tale."
-- "Publishers Weekly"
