Secrets confessed in a rose garden, a kiss shared between a young boy and girl of different races, the anguish of losing a child – this story collection explores pain and loss in the South. Quirky, often marginalized characters contend with forces beyond their control or understanding – racial terror, childhood traumas, family betrayals. We meet such characters as a childhood friend of Lee Harvey Oswald, a young lawyer sent to investigate the murder of Black troops in the Jim Crow South, and a mental patient obsessed with the film Harold and Maude. In each story, Lambert reveals the humor and tragedy running through the lives of these unique human beings.

If you care to sample the dark spicy gumbo of the Southern soul, you will want to meet and get to know these characters.