"If On the Outskirts of Normal were a country song, Lucinda Williams would sing it."—The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

In a small town where mothers with careers are rare, let alone a white mother who's adopted a black baby, Debra Monroe confronts her past in order to make a life for her daughter, and rebuilds a half-ruined cabin and her sense of what makes a family.

Debra Monroe is the author of four books of fiction. She teaches in the MFA program at Texas State University.