Harley's life has been a cycle of watching his mother's boyfriends come and go, seeing her leave, being on his own and waiting for her eventual return. But in the middle of the Arizona desert on his mother's latest escapade (she thinks the BMW driver is going to make her a star), Harley makes a snap decision and walks away.
Alone and afraid in the middle of the night, he is befriended by a stray dog and they both tag a ride with May, an old lady who offers them board and room in return for work. It's temporary, but Harley hopes that if he works hard, there will be more, especially after he meets two other misfits who are living at May's rented house.The four of them are about as compatible as square pegs and round holes. Bill can't move out of May's house because he's bedridden after an accident. Irascible May throws all of Bill's possessions into the rain as she cleans the house to the bare plaster. Harley wants and dares to love but can't express it. And Singer, the young girl, appears enchanted. "It seemed magical that Singer had come into his life like an answer to something he hadn't even known to ask for . . . "
Sebestyen's crisp dialogue and pithy descriptions sweep the story along, and while the ending is predictable (Harley stays and Bill moves to the carriage house), there are moments of heart-stopping emotion, as when Ish, the dog, is hit by a car and sacrifices a leg to survive.
This eccentric foursome, a likeable bunch, are placed in realistic situations that avoid a problem-novel formula with a pat solution. Harley's mother is a "flower child" but she doesn't change. (In a formula novel she would bounce into town with a contrite heart). May, at 70, has been deserted by a husband who suddenly remembers a family he started while in the Orient in the Army. He won't return and the reader sees that as a double challenge to the old woman. Bill won't develop many redeeming qualities, but he does sell his cherished possessions to save Ish. And Singer, the transient, is not likely to find herself in the positive home she hopes for. The reader is never even a little hopeful of any magnanimous changes.
What makes the reading of "Out of Nowhere" hopeful, in a sense, is that all four characters will have their rough edges worn smooth by rubbing together. The four will become more as a unit than they ever could individually. It is a lesson well-learned for young adult readers, "No man is an island unto himself . . . "
"Out of Nowhere" is a satisfying story and readers will cheer on the desperate boy Harley as he is nearly - but not quite - destroyed as one of today's homeless youth.