From Publishers Weekly In her remarkable first novel， Shea hauntingly evokes the spirits and sensations of childhood. The lives of two sisters at the crossroads between childhood and adolescence are described in lyrical， hypnotic prose. Set in the early 1960s， nearly all the action takes place in the backyard of the girls' suburban Virginia home， to them a surreal， adventurous place in which they act out their wishes， hopes and dreams， and try to cope--often ritualistically--with family dysfunction. Their father， whose mind has been ravaged by war， is given to drunken gunplay and sudden explosions of rage. Their mother is whimsical and distant; the marriage is disintegrating. The girls are forced back upon their inner resources and each other for a sense of security. Convincingly portraying the budding sexuality of early adolescence in sometimes shocking situations， Shea re-creates the numinous landscape of childhood in which animals and vegetation possess immanent intelligence and personality. The nameless terrors in their home life counterpoints the irrepressible optimism that is native to childhood and that， Shea implies， can see children safely through the grimmest of circumstances， such as the searing climax of this quiet， expertly told novel. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information， Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Library Journal This tale of the conflict between two sisters in the early 1960s marks the fiction debut of a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in such wide-ranging publications as Esquire ， the New York Times Book Review ， and People.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information， Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. See all Editorial Reviews