Meet John Gullivan, age thirteen, obsessed with the moles that dot most of his body. Meet his brother Gully, who can’t stop laughing at them. Now meet the brothers ten years later, in the middle of the most ferocious blizzard anyone can remember. Set in an Irish working-class suburb of Boston in the 1960s and 1970s, Puff centers on a quest as the soon-to-be-orphaned brothers, posing as rescue personnel, attempt to steer their dilapidated van through insurmountable snow, all to score a bag of pot.
Trapped in their own ruse and forced to act the part of the saviors they are pretending to be, the brothers run into an endless stream of foes and obstacles: the cops, their childhood priest, a knife-wielding maniac, and the ill all stand in the way of their elusive high. A raucous caper, Puff is as hilarious as it is heartfelt and will resonate with old and young alike.
Published by Harper Collins
Critical praise for Puff.
“Flaherty has managed to craft a richly textured story with a wonderfully eccentric and wholly unforgettable family at its center”
–Jonathan Tropper, author of The Book of Joe and Everything Changes
“A funny, well-crafted debut tale of sin, redemption, religious yearning…true and amusing and serious all at once.”
–Kirkus Reviews
“Flaherty’s loving rendition of Boston’s suburbia in the ‘60s and ‘70s…will charm the Slackers set.”
–Publishers Weekly
“flat-out hilarious”
–Detroit Free Press“Flaherty manages to craft a unique story that’s heartfelt in the most unexpected places — on the gymnastic mats of a deserted elementary school gym, for example, or in the cab of a decrepit newspaper delivery van as it drives away from the spot where an unconscious, formerly knife-wielding maniac has been dumped in the snow.”
Bob Flaherty 