First published 2006
Pete Barrington comes back to Loring, Mississippi after twenty-five years away. A football scholarship took him to California, where he built a medical career until scandal destroyed it. Now he reopens his practice in the Delta town where children dream of escape and adults return only when options run out. His wife resents the move to this foreign place. His daughter struggles to adapt. Pete reconnects with his old friend Alan DePoyster, who has built the stable family life and church standing that eluded him as a child. But Pete's return stirs old grudges in Alan. As their lives weave together again, Alan's rage against everything threatening his values grows dangerous. The town itself breeds its own troubles. People drink too much, spread gossip, and seek comfort in meaningless affairs. Provincial life suffocates. Personal histories determine fates. Parents pass their failures to their children. The novel captures small town existence where past and present collide, where characters fight claustrophobia and disappointment, and where the weight of memory shapes every relationship.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fish-out-of-water, second-chance
Setting: California, Loring, Mississippi
Period: 1990s
320 pages · Hardcover · Knopf
Content warnings: depression, mental-illness