by Ann Patchett
First published 1994
John Nickel runs a Memphis bar, longing to be a good father. When he hires the young, white waitress Fay Taft, her troubled brother Carl comes with her, and Nickel is drawn into their lives. As ominous events unfold, Nickel becomes consumed by the idea of Taft, Fay and Carl's dead father, using imagination to reconstruct a man he never met. Through this, Nickel begins to define his own priorities and the dangerous consequences of compassion.
Genres: american-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-driven, redemption, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Memphis (Tenn.)
Period: 20th-century
288 pages · Paperback · Mariner Books