Unbeknownst to her, he hires Iris out as housekeeper and companion for a country doctor’s elderly mother. After her mother’s early death, Iris’s father focuses on big plans for his new shoe stores and his latest girlfriend, and has no time for his daughter. Seller Inventory # 4891Īt fifteen, Iris is a hobo of sorts - no home, no family, no direction. Lyrical, yet humorous, Barbara Stubers debut novel is the unforgettable story of a girl who struggles to cast aside her long-standing grief and doubt and, in the span of one dusty summer, learn to trust, hope, and ultimately love. Iris must find the guts and cunning to take aim at the devil incarnate and discover if she is really as helpless or as hopeless as she once believed. Iris is buoyed by the warmth and understanding the doctor and his mother show her, but just as she starts to break out of her shell, tragedy strikes. Suddenly Iris is alone, stuck in gritty rural Missouri, too far from her only friend Leroy and too close to a tenant farmer, Cecil Deets, who menaces the neighbors and, Iris suspects, his own daughter. Unbeknownst to her, he hires Iris out as housekeeper and companion for a country doctors elderly mother. After her mothers early death, Iris' father focuses on big plans for his new shoe stores and his latest girlfriend, and has no time for his daughter. At fifteen, Iris is a hobo of sorts - no home, no family, no direction. Morris Debut Award by the American Library Association. Dust jacket is in near-fine condition (edge wear at the top and bottom of the spine and there is a scratch on the back cover). Hardcover is in near-fine condition (minor bump on the corner of the back cover and some residue from the glue shows at the top of the inside of the front and back covers).

SIGNED and inscribed by the author on the Title Page.

Crossing the tracks by barbara stuber