by Janet Peery
First published 2017
The Campbell family assembles on a summer evening in Amicus, Kansas, for their father's birthday celebration. The patriarch is sick, and the blue-collar town feels heavy with unspoken tensions. When the youngest Campbell son collapses face-first into his slice of devil's food cake, the family can no longer avoid confronting his drinking problem. The birthday dinner becomes something else entirely as siblings circle around questions of addiction, responsibility, and loyalty. Each family member carries their own wounds and disappointments, yet they remain tied together by bonds that bend but refuse to break. Janet Peery draws the Campbells with clear eyes, showing how families can wound and heal each other in the same breath. The evening forces each character to reckon with their role in both enabling and loving someone who is destroying himself.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-drama, found-family
Setting: Amicus, Kansas
Period: summer
435 pages · Library Binding · Thorndike Press Large Print
Content warnings: addiction, alcohol-abuse, substance-abuse