by Silas House
My daughters, Cheyenne and Liv, have taught me just about everything. Liv was our very first reader, and an especially helpful one since she was the same age as River and Meena when she read the manuscript. Jason Howard has patiently and lovingly lived alongside these characters for a couple years now, and I can’t thank him enough — for everything. I thank Berea College and Spalding University for their support. I have too many heroes fighting injustice to list, but chief among them are Wendell Berry, Chad Berry, Teri Blanton, Mari-Lyn Evans, Ashley Judd, Jessie Lynne Keltner, Kate Larken, George Ella Lyon, Bev May, Daniel Martin Moore, Megan Naseman, Deborah Payne, Erik Reece, Anne Shelby, Lora Smith, Ben Sollee, Patty Wallace . . . so many others, particularly the many students I know who are refusing apathy and making a difference in the world. To learn more about mountaintop removal, please visit http://ilovemountains.org. I am thankful to Karen Lotz, Nicole Raymond, and everyone at wonderful Candlewick for all their good, hard work. Neela Vaswani has broadened my view of the world and the human heart, and I am indebted to her. To all of my family (created and blood): my love and affection. To everyone who has read this book, thank you for spending time with us. Now, go do good. — Silas House
SILAS HOUSE is the nationally best-selling author of Eli the Good as well as the award-winning novels Clay’s Quilt, A Parchment of Leaves, and The Coal Tattoo. He is the director of the Appalachian Center at Berea College, the father of two daughters, and has three good dogs, including a Rufus. Silas House lives in eastern Kentucky.
NEELA VASWANI is the author of You Have Given Me a Country, winner of an American Book Award and named a ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year, as well as of Where the Long Grass Bends. She is also the recipient of an O. Henry Prize. She teaches at Spalding University’s MFA in writing program and is the founder of the Storylines Project with the New York Public Library. Neela Vaswani lives in New York City.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either products of the authors’ imagination or, if real, are used fictitiously.
Copyright © 2012 by Silas House and Neela Vaswani
Illustrations copyright © 2012 by Hilary Schenker
Cover illustration copyright © 2012 by Andrea Dezsö
Photographs here, here, here, and here courtesy of Silas House
Photographs here © Terraxplorer/iStockphoto;
© Steffen Foerster/iStockphoto; © Michael Courtney/iStockphoto
Photograph here © Mlenny/iStockphoto
Illustration here © Chen Fu Soh/iStockphoto
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in an information retrieval system in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, taping, and recording, without prior written permission from the publisher.
First electronic edition 2012
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
House, Silas, date.
Same sun here / Silas House and Neela Vaswani. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: A twelve-year-old Indian immigrant in New York City and a Kentucky coal miner’s son become pen pals, and eventually best friends, through a series of revealing letters exploring such topics as environmental activism, immigration, and racism.
ISBN 978-0-7636-5684-3 (hardcover)
[1. Pen pals — Fiction. 2. East Indian Americans — Fiction. 3. Letters—Fiction.] I. Vaswani, Neela, date. II. Title.
PZ7.H81558Sam 2011
[Fic] — dc22 2010048223
ISBN 978-0-7636-5747-5 (electronic)
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