Eighteen-year-old Travis Hollister is always the stranger who comes to town.
As a twelve-year-old escaping a disordered and unhappy home, Travis left the Midwest to spend a summer with his grandparents in the Deep South. There he met Delia, the love of his life, who, tragically, was beyond his reach for two reasons—she was his aunt and she was sixteen years old. That summer made Travis guilty of crimes discovered and undiscovered. For his public wrongs, he did time, six years in a Nebraska reform school. For his undiscovered wrongs, he suffers mightily and wants desperately to be shriven. Can he achieve redemption or is he bound for the hell on earth he can imagine all too well?
Released from reform school and driven by his need to rejoin the human community, he returns a stranger to Panama City, Florida, searching for Delia. Who is she now? What have the years done to her? Will she welcome the return of Travis or fear it?
Jean-Paul Sartre said, “Hell is other people.” In the course of this story, Travis learns that other people can also be salvation. Amid a cast of characters struggling with their own needs, desires, tragedies, and, yes, crimes, Travis finds violence, hatred, vengeance, and, in greater measure, friendship, honor, loyalty, and at least a glimpse of the road to redemption.
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