Joe - Larry Brown

Set in the Mississippi backroads, this unflinchingly realistic novel focuses on the relationship between Gary Jones, the 15-year-old son of dissolute itinerant laborers and Joe Ransom, a hard-drinking ex-con who becomes his unlikely savior.

Brilliant .

Larry Brown has slapped his own fresh tattoo on the big right arm of Southern Lit.

-- The Washington Post Book World Now a major motion picture starring Nicolas Cage, directed by David Gordon Green.

Joe Ransom is a hard-drinking ex-con pushing fifty who just won't slow down--not in his pickup, not with a gun, and certainly not with women.

Gary Jones estimates his own age to be about fifteen.

Born luckless, he is the son of a hopeless, homeless wandering family, and he's desperate for a way out.

When their paths cross, Joe offers him a chance just as his own chances have dwindled to almost nothing.

Together they follow a twisting map to redemption--or ruin.