Paul Zindel

The year Paul Zindel and his family moved to Travis, New York was the most important time of his whole life. It was the year he met Nonno Frankie Vivona, the mischievous grandfather who became his pigman. If you are like Paul, you probably won't recognize your pigman when he first appears. But what you do when you meet him will be a matter of life and death, because a pigman is the only one in the world who can teach you the secret of life.

Several convicts from a high-security prison escape the inhumane treatment of Chief Guard Ranken and break out into the icy Alaskan wilderness. The cons flee onto a departing freight train only to find themselves prisoners on a speeding train that is hurtling toward certain derailment, its conductor dead of a sudden heart attack.