"A spare, disciplined prose that no one will be able to read without thinking of Hemingway. But MacEnulty has made the style her own."-The Observer

"The dirty, realistic landscape sometimes steps aside for bittersweet coming-of-age flashbacks, but mostly we're in swampy hell. Harry Crews would love it."-Uncut(on Sweet Fire)

Jen Johanssen is a former porn actor trying to fit into the world of academia. Her sister, Lolly Johanssen, is a cancer survivor. Nicole Parks is in prison for loving the wrong guy. And Sonya Yakowski, also in prison, is a member of a family of traveling criminals, desperately missing her young son. The lives of these four women converge in a Florida prison, where Jen and Lolly have joined forces to put on a grant-funded drama production. Despite their remarkably divergent histories, these women come together in unexpected ways, each beginning to confront and forgive her own past.

Pat MacEnultylives in Charlotte, North Carolina. Currently an assistant professor at Johnson andamp; Wales University, she has taught creative writing in jails and prisons, at conferences for The Sunmagazine, and at the Winthrop University Kaleidoscope Summer Arts Camp for Teenagers.