My Account  •  Cart Contents  •  Checkout    

2007—If All of Rochester Read the Same Book…

Writers & Books’ “If All of Rochester Read the Same Book…” initiative connects people to the experience of literature and to others throughout our community, through reading and discussion.

   Writers & Books is proud to announce that the bestselling novel The Buffalo Soldier by Chris Bohjalian has been selected for the 2007 “If All of Rochester Read the Same Book…” community-wide reading program.

The Buffalo Soldier by Chris Bohjalian is a moving and beautifully written work exploring many facets of love, loss, hope, and redemption as well as the complex nature of family.

    Two years after their twin daughters die in a flash flood, Terry and Laura Sheldon, a Vermont state trooper and his wife, take in a foster child. His name is Alfred; he is ten years old and African-American. He has passed through so many indifferent families that he can't believe that this new one will last.

In the ensuing months Terry and Laura will struggle to emerge from their shell of grief only to face an unexpected threat to their marriage: Terry's involvement with another woman. Meanwhile, Alfred cautiously enters the family circle, and befriends an elderly neighbor who inspires him with the story of the buffalo soldiers, the black cavalrymen of the old West. Out of the entwining and unfolding of their lives, The Buffalo Soldier creates a suspenseful, moving portrait of an unconventional family—the ties that bind it and the strains that threaten to pull it apart.

"If it's captivating literature you're after, The Buffalo Soldier earns a solid A."

Entertainment Weekly

"Emotionally charged ... a show stopper ending."

USA Today

"[The Buffalo Soldier] is the best book yet from a novelist who has managed to win critical acclaim while landing on bestseller lists."

Minneapolis Star Tribune

"Wonderful…The Buffalo Soldier is a story that pulls at the reader's heart."

Denver Post

"Bohjalian plunges [his characters] into a dramatic situation so powerful that even their quiet voices cannot fail to be heard .... The Buffalo Soldier is imbued with hope and the possibility for redemption."

Washington Post

 


If All of Rochester Read the Same Book....

Resources Available

The following materials are available at W&B, and at local libraries and bookstores:

  • Readers’ Guide to The Buffalo Soldier   Requires Adobe Reader   PDF

Events Calendar Requires Adobe ReaderPDF


 

 

"If All of Rochester Read the Same Book..."

2001: A Lesson Before Dying

2002: The Sweet Hereafter

2003: Kindred

2004: Peace Like a River

2005: Servants of the Map

2006: Name All the Animals

2007: Buffalo Soldier

2008: Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits

2009: Jim the Boy

2010: Bel Canto

2011: The Good Thief


 

Support for “If All of Rochester Read the Same Book…” comes from The New York State Council on the Arts and The National Endowment for the Arts. Local support provided by Flower City Printing; The Fred and Floy Willmott Foundation; and Boylan, Brown, Code, Vigdor and Wilson, LLP.