0060207221 Signed By Author This 6 x 9 hardcover has 207 pages. The book is

0060207221 Signed By Author This 6 x 9 hardcover has 207 pages. The book is signed and inscribed by the author on the title page. There is light soil along the foredge. Sam, 14, has placed his younger brother Ollie with a foster family for a year, after committing his mother to Soberlife, a treatment center for alcoholics--who make up 60% of the population. Sam and Ollie's father, a member of a fire-and-brimstone religious group, the Steamers, left years before. Now Sam is ready to let his mother out, to find out if she is ready to have Ollie back or if the younger boy should be signed over to the foster parents permanently. Sam's control over everyone is a running theme of the book; but in a denouement that is as debilitating as it is surprising, Sam finds that if he has grown up too soon, he still needs some nurturing--and discovers it from a most unexpected source.