Casey Rickert is in trouble. He's just lost his plane ticket back home to Kansas City in an unfriendly poker game. He has a Lit paper due on a book he's never read, and on top of everything else, even though he took off finals week to go surfing, his cutback still hasn't improved. But Casey's talent for getting into and out of trouble has earned him the nickname "The Wizard," and he views this latest assortment of predicaments merely as opportunities for yet another brilliant recovery. Lately, though, Casey's predilection for trouble seems to be outstripping even his own marvelously cosmic equilibrium. His brother Davy's death almost a year ago upended Casey's world and left him shaken, vulnerable, and hurtling from one disaster to the next. Wandering through Santa Barbara in a desperate attempt to get home, Casey's chance impersonation of Santa Claus opens up to him a hidden world of goodwill toward men, unanswered Christmas wishes, and beard itch. Still wearing the Santa suit, Casey embarks on a journey from Los Angeles to Kansas City, rediscovering kindness, hope, and love from the people he meets along the way. Michael Allin's The Christmas Kid is an inspiring story of redemption.

本作は、「魔法使い」を気取る青年が内面の空虚と向き合う魂の彷徨を描いた珠玉の物語です。著者マイケル・アリンは、軽薄な日常の裏側に亡き兄への癒えない喪失感を巧みに潜ませました。このコントラストが、物語に単なる青春小説を超えた文学的な深みと、震えるような切実さを与えています。 サンタの衣装という「仮面」を被ることで、彼は自分自身の真実と他者への慈愛に目覚めます。偶然の旅が孤独な魂の救済へと昇華される過程は圧巻の一言。絶望の淵でこそ輝く人間の善意を、瑞々しくも熱い筆致で描き出した、読者の心に消えない灯をともす感動の傑作です。