Meg Landry took it for granted that it was to be a day like any other. Her asthmatic eight-year old son would step off the bus, home from school. But on this day, the boy on the bus is not Meg's son - or at least doesn't appear to be. He has a finer nose, his skin is shinier, and his face looks more mature, as if he has grown into being Charlie more than the real Charlie ever did. Neither Charlie's father nor his sister can confirm whether this boy is or is not Charlie. They look to Meg for certainty - after all, shouldn't a mother know her own child? Now in paperback, one of the year's most acclaimed fiction debuts 'pulls a Henry James', according to New York Newsday, in a story that is 'minutely observed and subtly told'. A daringly innovative first novel, THE BOY ON THE BUS probes the depths of a family stretched out along the seams of post-modern, small-town life. A richly gifted wordsmith with the deftness of a premier suspense novelist, Deborah Schupack has created a tense and atmospheric combination of literary sophistication and page-turning readability.