"Haunted by a secret tragedy, Edwin, son of the richest family in a small Southern town, fights to overcome his addiction to morphine and face the truth that his parents have worked to obscure. This timeless debut novel of master Southern storyteller Michael Parker takes readers to a small Southern town in the 1950s where Edwin Keane suffers from the lasting effects of a horrible accident-a broken back, a morphine addiction, and a town of enabling eccentrics. Redemption comes in the form of a young woman-the daughter of a poor farmer-and a couple of the town's most interesting outcasts. Parker is an amazing writer. His narrative style is both lyrical and economical, making this novel a true Southern gothic classic"--