A Doubleday Book Club Selection A Literary Guild® Selection A Quality Paperback Book Club Selection A Black Expressions Book Club Selection

“[I]ts cathartic message of forgiveness and recovery will elicit tears.” — starred, Publishers Weekly

For Kenzie, growing up in the Lowe home means opening the bottom drawer of her father's dresser to see which of the three belts — coiled and waiting like snakes — she wants to get whipped with. It means trips to Beehive Liquors for her father's vodka, and dreaming of the day she can escape apartment A5. It means developing her own craving for the bottle. Twenty years later, still haunted by her childhood, Kenzie learns that her father is dying. Shocked by her desire to be with him during his final hours, she returns to his bedside day after day in search of a way to heal her pain.