Critical Praise

" Russell Banks...explores the themes of good and evil, fate and freedom, success and failure, love and sex, and racism and poverty through alternating chapters focusing on dual protagonists: Bob Dubois, 30, who forsakes his deadend job as an oil burner repairman in New Hampshire to begin a new life in Florida, and Vanise Dorinsville, a young, illiterate Haitian mother who seeks refuge from poverty by fleeing to America...Original in conception, gripping in execution. "

——Newsday

" Grandeur...Tremendously ambitious...A powerful, disturbing study in moral 'drift', confusion, and uncertainty. "

——San Francisco Examiner—Chronicle

" An important novel because of the precise manner in which it reflects the spiritual yearning and materialistic frenzy of our contemporary life...Always, Banks writes with tremendous knowledge, conviction, and authenticity. "

——Chicago Tribune

"A great American novel...a lesson in history...It is the most convincing portrait I know of contemporary America. "

——James Atlas, The Atlantic