J. K. Klavans' debut novel quickly developed a quiet cult following in the mid-1980s for its uncompromising portrait of damaged desire, class and emotional drift.

Set against the fringes of American life, the novel follows a cast of restless young people drawn together by sex, violence, fantasy and failed attempts at escape. Klavans writes with an intensity that owes something to Southern Gothic, something to noir, and something to the literary minimalism of the period, while remaining distinctly her own voice.

The novel lingers in the uneasy territory where longing curdles into obsession and intimacy becomes another form of survival. The prose moves between lyrical and brutal with surprising ease, capturing moments of tenderness alongside scenes of startling emotional and physical violence. A fascinating, now largely forgotten novel that will appeal to readers of Dorothy Allison, Harry Crews, Joy Williams and early Cormac McCarthy, as well as anyone interested in overlooked American literary fiction of the 1980s.

1985 Picador paperback edition. Good condition with light edge wear and age toning to the pages. Binding is solid and the interior is clean and unmarked.