The tantalising opening of this novel leads us to speculate how a 'normal' American family could end up with both parents in jail for robbery and their two children made homeless orphans. This tale of transgressions and crossed boundaries, both literal and metaphorical, is a heartbreaking study of the loneliness of the outsider. It is a novel to be read slowly, to savour and re-read, to get the full impact of all its subtleties.
