Russell Gaines returns home from a prison term only to confront two brothers with revenge on their minds. And when he meets a homeless woman and her child, his troubles are compounded. Michael Farris Smith sets his characters on a path that was begun by Faulkner and continued by Larry Brown but it is one not confined to the Deep South but part of the undercurrent of American society. While it may be a road of desperation it can also be, sometimes, one of redemption. In Smith’s case, it is all that and more in a powerful, unforgettable work. — BC