by Janet Peery
First published 1993
In 1950s Milwaukee, a fourth grade girl finds herself drawn to and disturbed by a Polish classmate whose strange words and images awaken confusing desires within her. Meanwhile, across various American landscapes, other characters navigate their own crossroads. An Oklahoma farming couple travels to the Texas Gulf Coast where their marriage faces an unexpected trial. A young girl accompanies her lawyer father to meet a murderer's mother at a roadside truck stop, forcing her to grapple with questions of guilt and mercy. In the Rio Grande Valley, the teenage daughter of a Mexican maid rebels against her mother's submissive relationship with their wealthy employers, only to discover uncomfortable truths about her own connections to the employer's son. Each story explores people suspended between worlds, whether cultural, geographical, or emotional, as they struggle to decode the mysteries of their circumstances and find solid ground beneath shifting identities.
Genres: literary-fiction, coming-of-age, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: coming-of-age, fish-out-of-water
Setting: Milwaukee, Oklahoma, Texas Gulf Coast, Rio Grande Valley
Period: 1950s
224 pages · Hardcover · Southern Methodist Univ Pr