"Without ever resorting to easy nostalgia or cheap sentimentality, Mr. DeMarinis gives us both a picture of the eternal realities of childhood-the humiliations of playground gamesmanship, the cruelties of puppy love-and a tactile portrait of life in the wartime '40's."-"The New York Times" Now in paperback, "The Year of the Zinc Penny" is a contemporary classic. Trygve Soren Napoli is a 10-year-old just beginning to realize that he is alone in the world. He must replace missing life pieces with what material is at hand; from his war-hero daydreams, to his obsession with Bela Lugosi's Dracula, to his first encounters with sex and violence, to his disgust and fear at the depravity of the hodgepodge adults in his life, Trygve's search for meaning is one of literature's most compelling.