"From the author of Native Moments comes a haunting and heartfelt portrait of life on the margins of the Florida panhandle.
In Panhandlers, Nic Schuck tells a raw and unflinching story of Hank Ackerman, a boy born into poverty in the forgotten lumber town of Sullivan, Florida. As Hank struggles to break free from a legacy of hardship and addiction, he learns that escape isn’t just about leaving—it’s about finding something worth running toward. Hank’s journey unfolds alongside the lives of Sullivan’s other denizens—mostly dreamers, drifters, and the down-and-out—each carrying their own burdens and desires.
Set against the backdrop of the sweltering Gulf Coast and spanning decades of hope, heartbreak, and hard luck, Panhandlers explores the pull of family and the price of dreams. With grit, grace, and deep emotional honesty, Schuck delivers a powerful coming-of-age tale interwoven among a chorus of lives bound by place, longing, and survival."
"After the death of his brother, Sanch Murray leaves for a surf trip to Costa Rica as a way to cope, but also as a way to prolong making decisions about his adult life, setting out on a quixotic search for an alternative to the American Dream.
Set in 1999 Costa Rica, Sanch and his friend Jake Higdon wander the dirt roads of Tamarindo and surrounding areas chasing waves as a way to live out the romantic fantasy lifestyle of traveling surfers. Jake Higdon, six years Sanch's senior, takes on the role of the wise leader and Sanch as his young apprentice. Sanch's adventure leads to encounters with people who share world views he had never considered and could potentially shape his own changing perceptions about life. His existential adjustment gradually manifests through sometimes humorous episodes such as trying his hand as a matador at a roadside rodeo or in his not-so-humorous battle with dysentery. Along his journey, Sanch befriends a shamanistic traveler named Rob, young revolutionaries from Venezuela, numerous expatriates from around the world trying to escape whatever it is that keeps chasing them and a beautiful local girl named Andrea, who Sanch suspects is a prostitute but can't help falling for."
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