Pa Joe’s Place

Pa Joe’s Place by Clancy Tucker (Clancy Tucker Publishing)

PB RRP $25.00 plus postage E-Book $2.99

ISBN 9780646572208

Reviewed by Anastasia Gonis

Boo is a Thai girl, the youngest of seven children and seven years old. Extremely bright, courageous, optimistic and mature in her outlook, she always sees the best in every person and situation. Accepting of her circumstances, she obediently leaves her family, home, best friend and dying father, and sets out on a journey over 1,000 kilometres to Songkhla in the south, to be cared for and educated by Jesuit priest Pa Joe along with his other 155 orphans.

She finds another father, a new family and friends, and the opportunity to become something wonderful and experiences the greatest adventure of her life, which includes helping survivors of a train wreck, catching criminals, and meeting strangers whose lives she touches in significant ways.

This deeply moving story is inspired by and dedicated to real people: Boo Nawigamune, and Father Joe Carey who for 50 years, against great odds and with the help of many compassionate and generous people, cared for children he found on the streets of Thailand.  

Clancy Tucker has mapped out a superb social, cultural, and geographical picture of Thailand, and used it as background to his story. Tucker’s intimate knowledge of the country and the people gives an added richness and realism to every page of a story filled with inspiration and love.