Extraordinary Pupfish of Calaveras County

When Jeremy McGinnis, a 15-year-old in the sleepy Gold Rush town of Murphys, discovers a retired teacher spasming with an asthma attack and out of medicine, it's a no-brainer to get him to the hospital. But the local media suddenly turns Jeremy into a hero, his second "fifteen minutes of fame." As he gets to know the teacher, Lester Crump, a man who has invested his life savings in three breeding Vietnamese miniature potbellied pigs and a trailer, he raises Andy Warhol's comment into an intense and engaging study of personal integrity. Outside of town Eliza Hewlie, a 65-year-old widow brokering the sale of an abandoned gold mine just upstream from Lester, has to contend with the threat of the deal contaminating the town's groundwater. As Jeremy and Lester design a project which becomes a huge environmental scavenger hunt, involving dozens of high school students and half their parents, the tale of a town galvanized into action is told in alternating chapters by Jeremy and Eliza. In parallel coming-of-age stories, both begin feeling frustrated and trapped at the opening of the story but free and in control of their lives at the end for the first time.

Cand Jeremy McGinnis, un tanar de 15 ani, aflat in orasul somnoros Rush Gold, Murphys, descopera un profesor pensionar care spasmeaza cu un atac de astm si nu mai are medicamente, este de neinteles sa-l duci la spital. Dar presa locala il transforma brusc pe Jeremy intr-un erou, al doilea sau „cincisprezece minute de faima”. Pe masura ce il cunoaste pe profesor, Lester Crump, un barbat care si-a investit economiile de viata in trei porci in crestere miniaturi vietnamezi si o remorca, el ridica comentariul lui Andy Warhol intr-un studiu intens si captivant al integritatii personale.