West Of Alva

Description

WEST OF ALVA is a boy's excursion into the farmland of Oklahoma in 1961, where, twenty years before, Alva, Oklahoma, became the largest Nazi Prisoner of War Camp in the United States. Fifteen-year-old Matt has never driven a tractor, rode a horse, or even stepped foot on a farm. He's homesick when he gets off a Greyhound bus from Tulsa and meets his new boss, a poor, alcoholic wheat farmer. But the young boy soon becomes worried and suspicious when he climbs the narrow stairs to the attic the first night, where he is to sleep on the floor, across the room from the old farmer. Matt slowly faces the enormous challenges of his summer job while he puts together bits and pieces of truth about the farmer's downfall. Eventually, though, Matt needs serious help, so he turns to his new friends: Carol, a beautiful farm girl, and Sam, a young, alert, black boy. Before the wheat harvest is finished, Matt must convince the troubled farmer to stay sober. At least long enough for him and his friends to find the hidden connection between Camp Alva and a dangerous plot to terrorize the farmer and take over his farm.