THE UNRESOLVED

THE UNRESOLVED is T.K. Welsh's first Young Adult (YA) novel, published by Dutton (Penguin) in August, 2006.

The Washington Post said, "Welsh writes with a precision and delicacy unusual for YA fiction."  School Library Journal said, "THE UNRESOLVED tells a remarkable story in a remarkable way."  Horn Book Magazine called THE UNRESOLVED, "A decidedly unconventional ghost story ... (and) a tightly wound novel."  Kirkus Reviews termed it, "A remarkable account."  And Romantic Times magazine said, "THE UNRESOLVED is a book you shouldn't pass up."

Ghost meets Titanic -- For Teens
Inspired by the tragic events of 9/11, THE UNRESOLVED reaches back into history to explore what was, until recently, the greatest disaster in New York City history. At once a ghost story, a courtroom drama, an examination of immigrant life, and a tale of love, redemption and revenge, THE UNRESOLVED dramatizes how a single life – and death – can have a powerful influence on history.

Using the convention of a spirit unable to rest until its death is avenged, THE UNRESOLVED is a decidedly unconventional ghost story about New York’s General Slocum steamboat disaster of 1904. Fifteen-year-old Mallory Meer is one of some 1,300 pleasure-seekers -- mostly German Lutherans on a church outing -- on the Slocum; another passenger is Dustin Brauer, the sixteen-year-old Jewish boy she fancies. A quick “first kiss” down below decks is followed by a fire sparked by a carelessly flicked cigarette, which leads to the burning or drowning of over one thousand passengers, and the foundering of the ship. Mallory herself speaks to the reader from death, her spirit flitting from the official inquest into the disaster to the informal, parallel trial held in Kleindeutchland, Manhattan’s Little Germany, which seeks to hold Dustin responsible.

Trapped between this world and the next by her love for Dustin and her family, and thirsting for justice and revenge, Mallory is the ultimate outsider; she looks over the shoulders or actually inhabits the bodies of the novel’s various characters –- feeling their feelings, and remembering their memories –- as she attempts to bring those responsible for the tragedy to justice. The book is set against a backdrop that includes the pervasive anti-Semitism of the time, plus the rise of labor in immigrant New York, and explores the agony, the hopes, and the self-serving motivations of all concerned.

Ranked one of the Top Ten Children's Books of 2006 by the Washington Post, THE UNRESOLVED has also been named a 2007 Association of Jewish Libraries Notable Book for Teens by the Sydney Taylor Book Award Committee, which recognized only six works in Jewish teen literature this year.  The novel was nominated for the 2006 Cybils literary awards, and for the 2007 Best Books for Young Adults (BBYA) by the American Library Association.  It's currently featured as one of the Best Teen Books of the year 2006 at BarnesAndNoble.com.

To read (or print) a sample chapter of THE UNRESOLVED, click here.

To order your copy, click here.