Book excerpt: A debut novelist casts a satirical eye at southern society while celebrating the power of great teachers in this award-winning comedy of manners. Winner of the 2015 Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction As an English teacher at an elite private school in Mountain Brook, Alabama, Norman Laney is as unorthodox as he is morbidly obese. A natural wonder from the blue-collar South, Laney has barged into the exclusive world of Mountain Brook with a mission to defeat “the barbarians,” introduce true civilization in place of its thin veneer, and change his southern world for the better. Laney is adored by his students and by the society ladies who rely on him to lead their book clubs and charm their party guests. But there are others who think he is a larger-than-life menace to the status quo. When Laney is suddenly faced with an ultimatum and his imminent dismissal, he must outflank the principal at his own underhanded game, find out who said what about him and why, and launch his current crop of Alabama students into the wider world—or at least into Ivy League colleges.