Back roads

"Harley Altmyer, the heartbreaking and lovable hero of Tawni O'Dell's debut novel, should be in college drinking Rolling Rock and chasing girls. He should be freed from his stifling coal town, with its lack of jobs and no sense of humor. Instead, he's marooned in the Pennsylvania backwoods caring for his three beloved but unruly younger sisters.

He has, at best, a shaky hold on the vicissitudes of day care, mac and cheese dinners, and visits to a once-devoted mother who seems not only resigned, but glad to hand over the reins of motherhood to her son.". "Life is further complicated when he develops an obsession with the sexy, melancholic mother of two down the road. He wants Callie Mercer so badly he fears he will explode. Family secrets and the unspoken truths long held at bay collide with his obsession, unearthing a series of staggering surprises."--BOOK JACKET.