A New York Times Notable Book Of The Year, This deeply immersive novel (The Washington Post) from the author of the awardandndash, winning Preparation for the Next Life is an epic coming-of-age tale filled with pain, heartache, fear, and undying love (The Associated Press), as a young man's yearning to protect his dying mother requires him to risk destroying his estranged, enigmatic, powerful father. From its hypnotic opening pages, we find ourselves in the sure hands of a roaming omniscient narrator, one who knows intimately the beating hearts of its two central characters Andre Dubus Iii, The New York Times Book Review Corey Goltz grows up in the working-class outskirts of Boston as the only child of Gloria, whose ambitions were derailed early but who has always given her son everything she can. Corey, restless, dreams of leaving home for a great adventure. Instead, when he is fifteen, the world comes crashing down upon him, when Gloria is diagnosed with Als and, too late, his estranged father, Leonarda man of great charisma but dubious moral character reenters the picture. Determined to be his mother's hero at any cost, Corey begins shouldering responsibility for her expensive medical care, pushing himself to his physical and emotional limits as her disease cruelly progresses.