The author's debut novel which led to his being chosen as a Mid-Atlantic Finalist by Granta Magazine. The author's second novel - Why The Tree Loves the Ax - was featured as a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection for Winter 1998. It examines the distribution of power within families, how happiness is accidental, how our self-definitions derive from others, and how one can find grand themes in the ordinary tragedies of our lives.