The Dunnes have set off on a ten day boat trip, a trip that hopefully will bring them closer together, despite the fact that the father, Stuart is staying behind on land. But only an hour into the trip they're already falling apart. The teenage daughter plans to drown herself, and the teenage boy is high on drugs. Ten-year-old Ernie is near catatonic. But their mother Anne, with the help of her brother-in-law Jeff, is insistent on pulling everyone...

Meet Franny and her younger brother, Zooey, in two Salinger stories.

"College student Joe Talbert has the modest goal of completing a writing assignment for an English class. His task is to interview a stranger and write a brief biography of the person. With deadlines looming, Joe heads to a nearby nursing home to find a willing subject. There he meets Carl Iverson, and soon nothing in Joe's life is ever the same. Iverson is a dying Vietnam veteran--and a convicted murderer. With only a few months to live, he has been...

Of all the folks in the mountain shacks, the Casteels are the lowest - the scum of the hills. Heaven Leigh Casteel is the prettiest, smartest girl in the backwoods, despite her ragged clothes and dirty face ... despite a father meaner than ten vipers ... despite her weary stepmother, who works her like a mule. For her brother Tom and the little ones, Heaven clings to her pride and her hopes. Someday they'll get away and show the world that they are...