Dahlia Cassandra

Best of 2016 Fiction Books - Entropy

"The most wonderful thing about the way Kressen writes is that he's direct-digestible to many while still remaining literary. He has the classic skill of Salinger in this way." - PANK

"Recommended. A subtle thriller. A compelling, nuanced read." - Luna Luna Magazine

"A philosophically deep, psychologically potent, and linguistically complex novel that reads at the pace of a thriller or romance novel." - GAMBA Forest

A pair of teenage siblings are abandoned on an Idaho farm where nothing will grow. Junior struggles to look after his younger sister - waking before dawn each morning to sell papers in the nearest town - but finds hope in whistling elaborate songs he imagines hold deeper meaning. His sister Tike, meanwhile, feels their mother's absence deeply but rarely lets her emotions cloud her judgment. She takes comfort inventing secret lives for the models in her beloved fashion catalogues, reciting their inner monologues aloud. Above all, the siblings draw strength from each other - until the arrival of two strangers in town awakens new thoughts and desires, leading to an unthinkable act of passion that sends the pair spiraling apart.

From the author of Concrete Fever comes a haunting, heartfelt story of a family in the throes of change, a novel about faith and fantasy that examines the emptiness that resides within all of us, and the things we do to fill it.