Heart's Content

A group forms its own surrogate family on the margins of society in this novel by the author of The Beans of Egypt, Maine. Mickey Gammon, fifteen, has dropped out of school and been kicked out of his home. But he has found a new place in the Settlement-a rural cooperative that deals in alternative energy, farm produce, and locally made goods. Run by "The Prophet," the Settlement is demonized by the media as a compound of sin, but its true nature remains foreign to outsiders. It is here where Mickey meets another deserted child, six-year-old Jane, whose mother is in jail on trumped-up drug charges. Playing "secret agent," Jane cunningly prowls the Settlement in her heart-shaped sunglasses, imagining that her plans to bring down the community will reunite her with her mother. As they struggle to adjust to their new, complex surrogate family, Mickey and Jane are about to witness mounting unrest within the Settlement's ranks-which soon builds to a shocking and devastating crescendo.

It's there that his cousin Gary finds him and lures him away to Las Vegas. Gary has some uncontrollable impulses of his own: hugely overweight, he's a compulsive gambler, playing fast and loose with thousands of dollars. But now there's an enforcer tailing him, a sunglasses-wearing thug who has no trouble breaking hands, arms, legs. Gary needs protection in Vegas. Who better than his strong, volatile cousin Dess?