Raebeck’s coming-of-age novel follows a teenage boy through family tragedy and social conflict in 1980s Long Island.

“My mother died in May 1982, the end of my sophomore year in high school…” Ricky Hawkins tells us in the opening lines of this melancholy novel. Her death is the catalyst for the gradual dissolution of an already fragile family. Ricky’s father, Harold, moves the family back to their summer house in Amagansett, a narrow strip of land between bay and ocean on Long Island’s East End. It was their original home, where Ricky and his older sister, Lonnie, and younger sister, Tessy, were raised until his father’s job took the family up-island. Too quickly, Harold brings a new woman into the siblings’ lives. Lonnie rebels and runs off to Florida with her boyfriend, the fretful and anxious Tessy turns inward, and Ricky finds escape on the pickup basketball court behind the Amagansett grade school. This is where Ricky, who is White, becomes friends with Lance Williams, the Black star of the East Hampton high school basketball team. It is a relationship that will bring him into the middle of the tensions between the local Whites and Blacks. The narrative ambles at a gentle pace, leading to a moment of searing high drama. The author captures the particulars of time and place through evocative prose and succinct dialogue that reveals much in few words (“One of the first warm days, the sky a mild blue with huge puffs of cloud, I found Tessy leaning on one hand, pulling weeds with the other, one knee poking her white dress into a small tent”). As Ricky rides his bike from hamlet to hamlet, the author treats readers to beautifully expansive vistas that will change dramatically in the coming years (Amagansett still has its potato fields, and the large, elite chain stores have not yet invaded East Hampton’s Main Street). Through Ricky’s friendship with a group of local fishermen, the reader bears witness to the imminent demise of that industry and to the desperation and resignation among those who called the East End home.

Carefully composed, heartbreakingly poignant, and memorable.

A short story collection that delves into the intricacies of love, family, marriage, and community in the East End of Long Island, New York.

Raebeck begins with “Dream Girls,” about a family coping with grief. Fourteen-year-old Ricky’s mother has died, but he still sees her as an apparition in the bathroom; he talks to her about his life and how he and the family are getting on in the aftermath of her death. In “Walking Dunes,” Darlene’s husband leaves her, and she chases after him, dragging her daughter and son along with her. Later in the collection, “Wiborg” shows how a woman’s close relationship to the land has caused a rift in her family. There’s an ongoing theme of loss and division in these tales—of people yearning for each other but unable to bridge the gap caused by their circumstances. This is especially apparent in the titular story, in which an adult Ricky describes how his sister, a single mother who just left a terrible relationship, begins to follow a similar pattern with Ricky’s 29-year-old stockbroker friend Babiak. In another story involving a troubled marriage, “Fremont’s Farewell” tells the tale of a teacher who tries to teach his students about what he feels are life’s most important lessons but instead reveals his own personal history. He describes spending the day with his son in a touching scene that’s effectively juxtaposed with his generally cynical point of view. Raebeck also has a talent for showing how characters play different roles in others’ lives, such as parents, siblings, and childhood friends. “Camp Hero” is about a teen named Lance who tries to push Ricky onto his family to fill the void he’s about to leave in their lives as he heads off to college. The story generates heartfelt sympathy for Lance, who wants to protect and provide for his loved ones but needs to go his own way, and Ricky, who’s kind but has his own problems.

A poignant and often riveting collection of small-town tales.