WINNER OF THE JOYCE CAROL OATES PRIZE
A JOHN MULANEY READS BOOK CLUB PICK

“One of America’s greatest storytellers.”—Jonathan Evison

Eddie Wilkens is a housepainter in his early forties. His wife has left him, and his one employee barely shows up for work. Unassuming and self-reliant, Eddie rarely gets angry, despite life’s frequent provocations, but he is ruled by a guilt that he has carried for nearly twenty years.

Next door, a woman and her sons move in with her aging mother. Russell is quiet and small for his eight years and lives in constant terror of his increasingly troubled fifteen-year-old brother, Curtis. As their mother struggles to keep the family together and the grandmother’s health begins to fail, they find themselves unable to protect Russell and themselves from Curtis’s cruelty, which threatens to explode in frenetic violence.

Though neither knows it, Russell and Eddie will become each other’s saving grace. Russell begins waiting in Eddie’s backyard for him to get off work. Eddie feeds him, gives him odd jobs, listens to his dreams, and offers Russell a glimpse into a brighter world where a derelict muscle car can be revived, a loyal old dog waits for his friends, and Eddie and his misfit crew fumble through their days with humor and heart.

In return, Russell helps Eddie lay to rest the guilt that has plagued him. Together, this makeshift father and son begin to build a better life, daring to trade the bleak cynicism around them for hope.