{"product_id":"9781462007585","title":"The Layout","description":"\u003cp\u003eWhen a Depression-era southern town suffers a series of inexplicable tragedies, life is interrupted for its denizens—including a womanizing mayor, the abused wife of a sullen locomotive engineer, an honest but compromised police chief, a minister that seems to levitate, a dying junk dealer, a Black preacher caught between two worlds, a brutal company guard, a diminutive railroad executive and master manipulator, and a group of church ladies prone to gossip.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eSeventy years later, in Southern California, these stories are interwoven into the social trials of Taylor Bedskirt, a solitary widower with an obsession for trains, who falls desperately under the spell of an aggressive and careworn waitress, earns cautious acclaim from like-minded enthusiasts, and attempts to ward off a sister intent upon giving him a “normal” life.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eWhat ensues is a trenchant and often humorous exploration of the fictions we create and how we come to believe them.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"iUniverse, Incorporated","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47173288853744,"sku":"9781462007585","price":9.49,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781462007585_p0.jpg?v=1763675307","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781462007585","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}