Amber's Japanese father left when she was little, and her sister Bella was just a baby, so now she fills in the frustrating gap in her life with imagined conversations, and writes letters to Bella that seem to come from their father.
Presents a novel about Six-year-old Jean-Luc LaPointe, his little sister, and mother who move into the Irish slum district of Albany, New York after his father abandons them and their struggles to survive amidst the unemployment and poverty of the depression and war years.
Harlan Hawkins, a boy with a passion for baseball, must decide what he really wants from life after being offered a way out of the suburban poverty in which his family has lived since his mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and his father deserted them.
Trixie Jordan responds to a personal ad and meets writer Jacob Grace and they fall in love, but when family secrets are disclosed, Jacob disappears and Trixie stops believing in life, in love, and even in God.
