An engaging family tale where past and present get intricately bound together in surprising ways. In this novel, a grandmother’s legacy spurs her feckless grandson to change his life. Brownell’s book begins with Vee Haines waiting for her 9-year-old son, Ray, to come home. Their ramshackle homestead is in Starve-Out, New Mexico, a place so obscure that it’s not on any map. Vee tells Ray bedtime stories about her own childhood as the oldest daughter of a well-to-do banker in Chicago.
