Novel, Mother and child, Cultural Heritage, Women's Domestic Life 

"A smart, funny, wry, and winning book."-Pam Houston "Irresistible . . . Monroe at her edgiest and wisest."-John Dufresne Eking out a living as a social worker in Port Town, Texas, Delia Arco works with teenagers as outcast as she was, as well as a student intern convinced that Delia was sent to replace her murdered parents. In this landscape dominated by rumors and refinery smoke, Delia negotiates uneasy, romantic liaisons with men who can't fathom her obsessive independence and struggles to understand her long lost mother's seedy life and puzzling death. Having been abandoned by her mother, Delia anguishes over raising her adopted daughter, Esme. Delia's frantic love for her child terrifies and sustains her as she cobbles a new family from the ruins of the past. "Delia possesses Huck Finn's grit and good humor; that furiously funny take on life; and, above all, his stubborn moral streak."-Sharon Oard Warner - from Amzon