“The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley” by Hannah Tinti – A History in Bullet Wounds

Hannah Tinti took little time to establish herself as an author with some original tales to set on paper, and she continues her award-winning run with The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley.

The novel follows the titular Samuel as he spends years on the run trying to raise his daughter Loo. With Loo being a teenager and yearning for a normal life now, Samuel decides to settle down as a fisherman, but the demons from his past are never too far behind, as his twelve bullet scars constantly remind him.

Hannah Tinti Unveils the Scars of Life

For the majority of us, in the Western world at least, there exists a strong disconnect between the criminal and the other elements of our society from an observer's perspective. We tend to see career criminals as living in their own, separate and alien world which we cannot understand and must avoid at all costs. Sometimes, it's easy to forget criminals are, more often than not, also people with their own hopes and dreams of a better future. In The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti, we meet one such criminal with an extensive story to tell.

The book begins by introducing us to the titular Samuel, a man with a long criminal past behind him who spent years living on the run, trying to raise his daughter Loo. With nary a moment to sit still and moving from one motel to the next, there was always a limit to how much of an abnormal life Loo could endure, and thus Samuel decided to give stable life a shot, settling down as a fisherman in his late wife's hometown. While he tries to make ends meet and keep his head on the down low, Loo finally faces the more or less regular struggles of a teenager, trying to find a way to fit in with the rest of her peers in high-school.

However, Loo can't help but to grow increasingly curious by the day as to not only the fate of her mother whom she never knew, but also her father's past, shrouded in immeasurable mystery and tragedy. Whatever their past might be, Loo knows it was very real, as the twelve bullet scars on Samuel's body testify, each one a specific memory. Pretty soon, Loo is completely engaged in trying to unravel her parents' history, and everywhere she turns a piece of the puzzle seems to be laying in wait for her. Meanwhile, the demons from Samuel's past are catching up to him, and threaten to soon spill into his present. Retribution is at hand, and no one will get out of it clean.

The Mystery of Heritage

To begin with, let us discuss the elements which this book clearly lays on the table for us: Loo's search for her family's history and her father's attempts at outrunning the past which haunts them both at this point. Personally, I found Loo's quest to be captivating in its own right for the author came up with a large number of discoveries to keep the journey an interesting one. We already know each of the twelve scars on Samuel's body carries a unique story, and as we expectantly journey from one revelation to the next we are consistently fed various additional details which breathe more life into the story.

If there is one aspect of Loo's journey of discovery which surprised me, it's how unpredictable it ended up being. Usually in these types of stories the arcs followed are relatively similar and the so-called twists can be seen coming miles away. However, in this book I constantly found myself surprised at where Samuel's past took him and the eventual discoveries Loo keeps on making. Tinti definitely has a remarkable talent for subverting the reader's expectations, and in my mind few elements are as important in making a captivating thriller.

As far as Samuel's side of the story goes, it does feel a tad more traditional with its premise of a man whose dark past catches up to him. But even here the author knew how to tastefully inject some uncommon twists which suggest not everything is as clear as it might seem on first glance. The more we follow him on his attempt to evade his past, the more we are pushed to wonder who among them might be in the right, if anyone at all.

Human Metamorphosis

While the story does indeed offer a rather entertaining and captivating thriller, I can safely say this is one of those books with additional layers of depth to it. There are without a doubt plenty of themes to discuss here, certainly too many for such a short review, but one stood out prominently above all the other ones: transformation. The concept felt as if it permeated through the air itself, hanging like a cloud above virtually every scene and begging us to meditate on human nature's capacity to truly change and transform.

As you might imagine, this is most notably seen through the past we uncover about Samuel, tracing his life from a hardened criminal with little belief in the future to a loving father trying his best to give his daughter the normal life she deserves. As we witness the various events which pushed him along the path essentially becoming a better person, we also develop a closeness to Samuel, gaining a certain understanding of a man who seems to live in a mostly alien world from the rest of us. Some interesting questions arise from this journey, like how much trauma does it take for a person to truly change, and where might lie the point where it's all too late? These are the types of questions we ourselves are pushed to answer, and there are plenty more for those who enjoy thoughtful literature.

While some authors wouldn't be able to tackle such a long and complex character transformation, Tinti did a magnificent job at basically inching her character forward and allowing him to slowly change through his personal experiences. We never see Samuel, nor any other character as I recall, flip an unnatural metaphorical switch in their heads and become a completely different person. The character development is done in a very natural and realistic manner few could have achieved.

The Final Verdict

The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti is a rather original and profoundly-developed suspense novel with compelling characters, an engaging mystery as well as plenty of twists and thrills for the lovers of the genre. If you are looking for an excellent suspense thriller off the beaten path, then I highly recommend you give this book a shot.

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Hannah Tinti Personal site Hannah Tinti is an American writer as well as the co-founder of One Story magazine, which in 2009 earned her the PEN/Nora Magid Award for Magazine Editing. She has a Master's Degree from New York University, and her first novel, The Good Thief, received the American Library Association's Alex Award and the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize. Her short story collection, Animal Crackers, was a candidate for the PEN/Hemingway Award.