Skin

Turning loose a Midwestern species of magical realism on a small God-haunted town in Kansas Kellie Wells charms strangeness and wonder from what might be mistaken for ai??ordinaryai?? life. Here is Martin LeFavor convinced his father has been nabbed by a solicitous band of aliens in desperate need of skin; Charlotte McCorkle a vexed visionary who believes she has helped her husband escape the flesh; Zero Loomis plagued by sacrificial angels the memory of his father and a shadowy sexual identity; his sister Rachel an amateur masseuse determined to settle accounts with the past in particular with her lovingly violent father; Ruby Tuesday Rachela's daughter a budding oracle the embodiment of possibility and prey to history; and holding this tilted cosmos together fifteen-year-old Ivy Engel who carefully measures the borders of Self advocates for neighbourhood bats and frets about the health of her friend Duncan his harrowed body mapped and perhaps ravaged by subcutaneous scars.What happens when the spirit exceeds the limits of the skin? More troubling yet what happens if it doesna't? These are the questions the inhabitants of What Cheer Kansas must finally face as their paths cross and recross in an ever more intriguinga"and perhaps liberatinga"puzzle.