ABOUT
THE BOOK

None of the Mabie family of Wichita, Kansas could have imagined that the one son who exuded ‘the cosmetic loveliness of a saint’ would kill his beloved grandmother in a drunk driving accident. But, after five years in prison, thirty-three-year-old Winston is returning to his childhood home and the family he left behind.
For thirty years, this family house has played so many roles in the lives of Professor Mabie (recently retired from the history department), Mrs. Mabie, and their three children: it has represented warmth, foreboding, entrapment, shelter. Now all the Mabies, including one divorced daughter and two small children, find themselves back in a home of five grown-ups, where the positions of leader, of follower, of protector, shift depending on the situation.
What has the world taught this son Winston during his punishment? Can his sisters, his mother, his father forgive? Can they learn to speak of clean slates and new beginnings?