Book excerpt: A visionary work from one of the most distinctive voices in independent literary fiction, The Ghosts of Hawthorn, Missouri takes James Peet's poetic prose and razor-sharp perceptivity into themes of identity, oppression, survival, and love, and blends them together to craft a story that is both accessible and esoteric. The first stand-alone novel in his Heroes of Hawthorn anthology, Peet recounts the victories and tragedies in the small town of Hawthorn, Missouri, and one boy's search for a sense of self through friendship. Eric Redmond and Daniel Wright were two adopted brothers who grew up together, and died a world apart. They met in the middle of an American heartland that seemed perpetually in decline: shambolic trailer parks, a meth epidemic, and indifference between neighbors, but with the refuge of religion. Here, communities of blue-collar workers resigned to a lifetime of beige depression, themselves descendants of two centuries of cultural calamities, armed only with the faint hope of one day living their dreams. They give up their anxieties and weekly tithes to the Lord as well as to a charismatic pastor, Eric's father Harold Redmond. On the surface, it seems Father Redmond leads Hawthorn to the prosperity of which the townsfolk had always dreamed. However, every dwelling has its secrets; secrets that the citizens of Hawthorn intertwine with their tired spirits. Even with these new positive developments, the underbelly of Hawthorn still thrives: crime, drugs, and wealth disparities. The fiercest rebel against this newly established version of Hawthorn resides in Father Redmond's own home: his son, Eric. After his best friend Daniel's mother dies, they become adopted brothers. Their bond carries them through a tumultuous life, weighed heavy with dark secrets. It endures even after Eric has grown up to be a respectable man, and Daniel has become a shadow of his former self. Their bond is broken somewhere in the murky depths of the dysfunctional family unit -- or does it continue to endure? Horrifying, humorous, irreverent and tragic, The Ghosts of Hawthorn, Missouri is a work that bursts with pain, and with life. It explores the deep valleys between love and lives well lived, the cyclical nature of time, bigotry, the cult of personality, and the complicated dynamics of subjection and dominance. While the story spans centuries and steps its toe into the near future that Peet has shrewdly predicted, it is a novel that is as timely as it is timeless. It delves headfirst into American anxieties of The Other. The Ghosts of Hawthorn, Missouri is a vibrant portrait of a mad world that shines a light in the darkest of places.