The song “Volare” always transports me back to 1959. But what really resets the time machine for me is the memory of my buds, one of whom was Malcolm.

All of us baby boomers have our “Malcolms” — those childhood memories that occurred well before the world went crazy — that routinely whisk us back to our magically uncomplicated lives in small town America during the 1950’s and early 60’s.

This is the story of trying to find my Malcolm.

“Searching for Malcolm feels borne from a long list of classics. There’s some Stand by Me in this story, some Thunderbolt Kid, some Empire Falls. But there’s also a lot of Ned Van Woert here, too. His is a sincere, thoughtful, often comic and sometimes nostalgic voice, that tells a story of boyhood, friendship, and loss. In the lives of his characters, Van Woert shows us the full, complex journey of life.”

Jaed Coffin, author of A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants