The Universe Versus Alex Woods

by Gavin Extence

"Alex Woods was struck by a meteorite when he was ten years old, leaving scars that marked him for an extraordinary life. The son of a fortune teller, bookish, and an easy target for bullies, he hasn't had the most conventional childhood. When he meets curmudgeonly widower Mr. Peterson, he finds an unlikely friend. Someone who teaches him that that you only get one shot at life. That you have to make it count. So when, aged seventeen, Alex is stopped at Dover customs with 113 grams of marijuana, an urn full of ashes on the passenger seat, and an entire nation in uproar, he's fairly sure he's done the right thing ..."--From publisher description.

• ISBN10: 0316246573
• ISBN13: 9780316246576
• Publish Date: 25 June 2013 (first published 1 January 2013)
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Redhook
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 416
• Language: English

Reviews

[elvinagb]

First I saw the cover. Interesting I thought, I try and like the cover when I buy books. Read the synopsis on the inside cover. More interesting. A seventeen year old, cross a border with a lot of pot and some dead guys ashes on the seat.
I was not prepared for Alex, his meteorite bashed in head, his quirky weirdness, his intelligence and his compassion.
This is a wonderful, heartfelt, funny and inspiring read. The descriptions of the clinic in Switzerland were what I remember seeing in a documentary by Terry Pratchett. That part of the story bothered me far less than the descriptions of the fight on the bus with the boys who bully Alex.
I only wish I could give it more stars.