In the summer of 1958, Dave Robicheaux and his half-brother Jimmie are just out of high school. Jimmie and Dave
get work with an oil company, laying out rubber cables in the bays and mosquito-infested swamps all along the
Louisiana-Texas coastline. They spend their off time at Galveston Island, fishing at night on the jetties, the
future kept safely at bay, the past drifting off somewhere behind them. But on the Fourth of July, change approaches
in the form of Ida Durbin, a sweet-faced young woman with a lovely voice and a mandolin. Jimmie falls instantly in
love with her. But Ida's not free to love - she's a prostitute, in hock to a brutal man called Kale, who won't let
her go. Jimmie agrees to meet Ida at the bus depot, ready for the road to Mexico. But Ida never shows. Dave and
Jimmie want to believe she skipped town, but they know, deep down, that Ida Durbin never got to leave. That was many
years ago - before Dave Robicheaux began his long odyssey through bars and drunk tanks and skin joints of every
stripe. Before the Philippines and Vietnam. Now, an older, well-worn Dave walks into Baptist Hospital to visit a man
called Troy Bordelon, who wants to free himself of a dark secret before he dies. A bully and a sadist, he has a lot
to confess to - but he chooses to talk about a young girl, a prostitute who he glimpsed briefly as a kid, bloodied
and beaten, tied to a chair in his uncle's house. Dave realises he can't let the past go. Ida's killers are still
out there. So he begins his journey into the past - back to the summer of 1958 and a girl called Ida Durbin.
About The Reader
Will Patton (born June 14, 1954) is an American actor. He is one of the more recognized character actors in Hollywood,
appearing in numerous movies over the last 10 years.Patton was born in Charleston, South Carolina, the eldest son of
a Lutheran minister. He attended the North Carolina School of the Arts and The Actors Studio and won two Obie Awards
for best actor for his performances in Sam Shepard's play Fool for Love and the Public Theatre production of What Did
He See?. He was nominated for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of General Bethlehem in
The Postman. He also portrayed Coach Bill Yoast in Remember the Titans. Patton recently provided the voice for the
audio version of The Assault on Reason by Al Gore.
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