search for books and compare prices
cover image
The Book of Fred
Price
Store
Arrives
Preparing
Shipping

Jump quickly to results on these stores:

The price is the lowest for any condition, which may be new or used; other conditions may also be available.
Jump down to see edition details for: Hardcover | Paperback | Miscellaneous | Reinforced | Prebinding
Bibliographic Detail
Publisher Washington Square Pr
Publication date September 1, 2001
Pages 304
Binding Hardcover
Book category Adult Fiction
ISBN-13 9780743411936
ISBN-10 0743411935
Dimensions 1 by 5.50 by 8.50 in.
Weight 1.05 lbs.
Availability§ Publisher Out of Stock Indefinitely
Original list price $24.00
§As reported by publisher
Summaries and Reviews
Summary
Raised in an isolated, reclusive fundamentalist sect, Mary Fred Anderson finds her life turned upside down when she is uprooted and placed in foster care in the Cullison household, where her new housemates introduce her to a whole new world, until a horrifying act of violence forces her to confront everything about her life and past. A first novel. 25,000 first printing.
Amazon.com description: Product Description:

Filled with soulful humor and quiet pathos, Abby Bardi's boldly drawn first novel marks the debut of a joyfully talented chronicler of the quest for connection in contemporary life.

Mary Fred Anderson, raised in an isolated fundamentalist sect whose primary obsessions seem to involve an imminent Apocalypse and the propagation of the name "Fred," is hardly your average fifteen-year-old. She has never watched TV, been to a supermarket, or even read much of anything beyond the inscrutable dogma laid out by the prophet Fred. But this is all before Mary Fred's whole world tilts irrevocably on its axis: before her brothers, Fred and Freddie, take sick and pass on to the place the Reverend Thigpen calls "the World Beyond"; before Mama and Papa are escorted from the Fredian Outpost in police vans; and Mary Fred herself is uprooted and placed in foster care with the Cullison family. It is here, at Alice Cullison's suburban home outside Washington, D.C., where everything really changes -- for all parties involved.

Mary Fred's new guardian, Alice, is a large-hearted librarian who, several years after her divorce, can't seem to shake her grief and loneliness. Meanwhile, Alice's daughter Heather, also known as Puffin, buries any hint of her own adolescent loneliness beneath an impenetrable armor of caustic sarcasm, studied apathy, and technicolor hair. And the enigmatic Uncle Roy is Alice's perennially jobless and intensely private brother. As Mary Fred struggles to adjust to the oddities of this alien world, from sordid daytime television and processed food to aromatherapy and transsexuality, she gradually begins to have an unmistakable influence on the lives of her housemates. But when a horrifying act of violence shakes the foundations of Mary Fred's fragile new family, she finds herself forced to confront, painfully, the very nature of the way she was raised.

With a knack for laying bare the absurdities of daily life, Abby Bardi captures, with grace and authority, all the ambivalence and emotional uncertainty at the heart of these quirky characters' awakenings.

Editions
Hardcover
Book cover for 9780743411936
 
The price comparison is for this edition
from Washington Square Pr (September 1, 2001)
9780743411936 | details & prices | 304 pages | 5.50 × 8.50 × 1.00 in. | 1.05 lbs | List price $24.00
About: Raised in an isolated fundamentalist sect, Mary Fred Anderson experiences upheaveal in her life when circumstances leave her in a foster home that opens her eyes to an alien world and a violent act that changes everyone involved.
Paperback
Book cover for 9780743411943
 
Reprint edition from Washington Square Pr (September 1, 2002)
9780743411943 | details & prices | 320 pages | 4.75 × 8.25 × 0.75 in. | 0.65 lbs | List price $21.95
About: Raised in an isolated fundamentalist sect, Mary Fred Anderson experiences upheaveal in her life when circumstances leave her in a foster home that opens her eyes to an alien world and a violent act that changes everyone involved.
Miscellaneous
Book cover for 9780743424493
 
from Atria Books (August 28, 2001)
9780743424493 | details & prices | 304 pages | List price $15.99
Reinforced
from Demco Media (October 30, 2004); titled "Book Of Fred"
9780606299114 | details & prices | List price $22.35
About: Raised in an isolated fundamentalist sect, Mary Fred Anderson experiences upheaveal in her life when circumstances leave her in a foster home that opens her eyes to an alien world and a violent act that changes everyone involved.
Prebinding
Book cover for 9780613583527
 
Reprint edition from Paw Prints (October 15, 2008)
9781439564639 | details & prices | 320 pages | List price $23.00
About: FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY.
from Turtleback Books (July 1, 2003); titled "Book of Fred"
9780613583527 | details & prices | 5.75 × 8.50 × 1.25 in. | 0.86 lbs | List price $25.75
About: Raised in an isolated fundamentalist sect, Mary Fred Anderson experiences upheaveal in her life when circumstances leave her in a foster home that opens her eyes to an alien world and a violent act that changes everyone involved.

Pricing is shown for items sent to or within the U.S., excluding shipping and tax. Please consult the store to determine exact fees. No warranties are made express or implied about the accuracy, timeliness, merit, or value of the information provided. Information subject to change without notice. isbn.nu is not a bookseller, just an information source.