James and Jilly

A piercing new novel from the award-winning author of A Dignified Exit When James Martin's father kills James's mother and commits suicide, the Claybern family takes the orphaned ten-year-old in—against their young daughter Jilly's wishes. All James Martin wants is a normal life, free of the stigma of his father's actions and consequent blackouts from which he wakes totally disoriented and terrified of what he might have done. His worst fears are realized when as a young adult he awakens in a sleazy hotel room to find a young boy tied to a chair, a body on the floor, and a bloody tire tool in his hand. It's hard enough for Jilly in rural West Texas, as she has a rare genetic condition similar to albinism, but with tints of skin tone and pale otherworldly blue eyes. Jilly is obsessed with reclaiming the prestige her family lost when her father read an "evil omen" in a tub of hog guts and took to his bed, never to work again. When Jilly eventually has an opportunity to make serious money, she is faced with a moral dilemma: just how far is she willing to go to get it? Can either James or Jilly live a normal life, at peace with themselves or each other in this coming-of-age novel set in drought-stricken West Texas in the 1940s and '50s?