The book of Joe / Jonathan Tropper

"A Delta book"--T.p. verso.

"Joe Goffman has just learned that his estranged father is in a coma. Now the thirty-four-year-old author must return to the town and family he turned his back on seventeen years ago. So with nearly two decades of emotional baggage packed into the trunk of his shiny new Mercedes, Bush Falls's most notorious prodigal son is coming home." "Within hours of his arrival, before he can begin making amends to his family or look up his high school sweetheart, Joe's return ignites a maelstrom of reaction. Senior citizens throw milk shakes in his face, the book club members hurl their copies of his novel at his house, and an ex-classmate turned felon threatens him with bodily harm. And that's just his first day back." "But while Bush Falls may be less than thrilled to see Joe, it's becoming clear that Joe needed to see Bush Falls. As he walks the familiar streets of is hometown, he revisits the terrible events of his senior year - 1986 - a year of passion, betrayal, and catastrophe from which he's never fully recovered. But after seventeen years of hiding from it, Joe is finally ready to face his past, and with the help of some old friends, he may actually learn something ... if he manages to survive the homecoming."--BOOK JACKET.