{"product_id":"9781617750083","title":"Tender As Hellfire","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the award-winning author of \u003ci\u003eThe Boy Detective Fails\u003c\/i\u003e: A novel of two brothers growing up on the other side of the tracks. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “A trailer park in the Plains town of Tenderloin is the setting of this crusty coming-of-age debut, which features some of the liveliest characters just this side of believable that one is apt to meet in a contemporary novel. The first-person narrator is a moral but susceptible eleven-year-old called Dough, who lusts after his fifth-grade teacher and idolizes his trouble-making older brother, Pill-Bug. The boys, who are new to the town and shamed by the stigma of living in a trailer, were named by a father who wanted them to remain tough and who ended up dying while smuggling cigarettes along a Texas highway. Their mother and her new boyfriend, French, are low-life swingers, allowing the siblings to spend nights with Val, who entertains a slew of men but whom Dough worships as a virginal Madonna. Dough’s own adoring friend is Lottie, a slightly deranged girl who offers Dough a gift of one of her taxidermist father’s specimens; meanwhile, Pill-Bug earns a special affection from Lunna, a high school floozy. Each character is vividly described . . . Meno’s passionate new voice makes him a writer to watch.” —\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Akashic Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47179440226544,"sku":"9781617750083","price":14.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781617750083_p0.jpg?v=1769904612","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781617750083","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}