First published 2009
Isaac English tends to his aging father in a crumbling Pennsylvania steel town where factories stand empty and hope runs thin. His mother took her own life. His sister fled to Yale. Now Isaac plans his own escape, dreaming of a world beyond the abandoned homes and rusted machinery that define his hometown. He sets out with his volatile best friend, determined to leave for good. But their journey takes a violent turn that traps them both in consequences neither anticipated. What begins as a bid for freedom becomes a reckoning with loyalty, family obligation, and the weight of a single terrible moment. Isaac must navigate between his desire for transcendence and the harsh realities that keep pulling him back. In courtrooms and prison cells, in local bars and train yards, he discovers that leaving home means more than crossing county lines. The bonds of friendship and the burden of love prove stronger than distance.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Pennsylvania
Period: 21st-century
384 pages · Hardcover · Spiegel & Grau
Content warnings: depression, suicide