Recent Arrivals chronicles the books that have made their way onto the Today, I Read… bookshelf. Here’s the latest arrival: In This Way I Was Saved by Brian DeLeeuw

First line: I enter the lobby of Claire Nightingale’s apartment building, here to tell her I have murdered her only son.

Initial thoughts: This book interested me right away. It was the cover the drew me in and the description that hooked me. There is an ethereal quality that left me wondering, what exactly is contained within the pages of that book? When a book’s storyline does that to me, I know I must have it. I really don’t know what to expect, but I know the description reminded me a bit of The Good Son, except in this case it might be a tale of the imaginary good son.

Book description:

On a chilly November afternoon, six-year-old Luke Nightingale’s life changes forever. On the playground across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he encounters Daniel. Soon the boys are hiding from dinosaurs and shooting sniper rifles. Within hours, Luke and his mother, Claire, are welcoming Daniel into their Upper East Side apartment — and their lives.

Daniel and Luke are soon inseparable. With his parents divorcing, Luke takes comfort in having a near-constant playmate. But there’s something strange about Daniel, who is more than happy to bind himself to the Nightingales. The divorce has cut Luke’s father out of the picture, and as his increasingly fragile mother struggles with the insidious family depression, Daniel — shrewd, adventurous, and insightful — provides Luke both recreation and refuge.

As Luke grows from a child to an adolescent to a young man, he realizes that as much as his mother needs him, Daniel needs him more. Jealous of Luke’s other attachments, Daniel moves from gestures of friendship into increasingly sinister manipulations. In the end, Luke finds himself in a daily battle for control of his own life — wondering whether he or Daniel will emerge victorious.

Book Details: 304 pages; Simon & Schuster; Pub. August 4, 2009