A Boy's Guide to Outer Space

"1963, Hattertown, Connecticut. Leo "Half" Napoli mourns his dead hat factory worker father while daydreaming of being the first man on the moon and partaking of "something of the infinite." Meanwhile, he and his fellow Back Shop Boys (their fathers all worked in the dangerous, mercury-fume-laden back shops of hat factories) seek to learn the identity of the mysterious Man in Blue, who wanders the town collecting odd items in his rucksack. Elected to spy on him, Half enters an odd friendship during the course of which the man teaches Half to swim. Meanwhile Half discovers not only what "Jack Thomas" has been collecting in his rucksack, but the extraordinary circumstances that led to his fugitive existence--an odyssey extending from pre-WWII Bohemia to a German POW Camp and beyond."--Publisher description.