Ernest Hebert

"Howard Elman is a man whose internal landscape is as disordered as his front yard, where native New Hampshire birches and maples mingle with a bullet-riddled washer, abandoned bathroom fixtures, and several junk cars. Howard, antihero of this first novel in Ernest Hebert's highly acclaimed Darby Chronicles, is a man who is tough and tender. Howard's battle against encroaching change symbolizes the class conflict between indigenous Granite Staters...

Forced to drive the town's garbage truck to keep his family afloat while his father recovers from a broken leg, ambitious Frederick Elman finds romance with Lilith, whose wealthy father has died, but unscrupulous townspeople conspire against them and Lilith's fortune.

Thirteen-year-old Web Clements emerges from a swamp in ruralNew Hampshire, caked in mud and stripped of his memory. He sets out on a journey to discover his own history, a journey through a slightly skewed America where image has replace substance and reality seems an imitation of itself. From the apparently placid suburgbs of Conenctivut to the violetn streets ofthe Bronx, from the decay of America's rust belt to the sunny optimism of the wide-open...

Jack Landry, a promising high school baseball player, and his best friend, Elphege Beaupre, live by the motto "Never back down, never instigate." It's a rule of stubborn passivity that Jack will follow to the end of his days. Unconsciously burdened by his heritage, hemmed in by his working-class parents' submission to authority, the church, and a life of hard work, young Jack still has big dreams. Yet his warring values and desires lead to two mistakes...