The Riverbed

When Axel gets into trouble with the authoritarian pastor of his church, he runs away both for real and into his own fantasies. Fox goes looking for him in more ways than one, accompanied by his friend Angel, a Latin-X girl with a critical mind and a lot of experience in adult hypocrisy. What they all end up finding is the courage to be themselves and to care for one another in a world that doesn't much value either. tells the story of three intelligent young people coming to learn about the darker sides of the suburban dream they call home. Written in a fabulating style but with a realist's eye for the details of place, history, and nature, it combines the playfulness (if not the largeness) of a Salman Rushdie novel with the moral seriousness of J. D. Salinger. It will be loved by readers of all predilections - those with their heads in the clouds no less than those with their feet on the ground.