Jerrold Mundis

An extraordinary family saga about a fiercely German Catholic clan growing up in Midwestern America.

Epic in scope and emotional appeal, it is a story of angry sons and rebellious daughters, hapless mates and lovers, trapped in hopeless entanglements of need and resentment; of a vibrantly alive young woman dying of cancer and an emotionally ravaged young man struggling to be reborn; of a plainly human hunger for love at the mercy of iron traditions that bend only in madness.

"A superb novelist presents a book difficult to overpraise."
—Publishers Weekly

"Powerfully written...a monolithic carving. In fiction and in fact, Gerhardt's children are with us."
—Book World

A Book-of-the-Month Club selection.