"Amid the gangland wars of Prohibition, one fisherman's long-shot play to secure his family's future brings disaster to everyone he loves. Eld knows better. War taught him to know better. But with Prohibition expiring in a matter of months, his turn from fisherman to smuggler will be temporary. Running Canadian whiskey across Lake Huron seems the perfect plan to get his family out from behind the eight ball. Even Maggie, Eld's normally sensible wife, is on board. So together they tempt fate and throw the dice. Ill-gotten gains soon roll in, but when the underwild empires battle to capture what's left of a shrinking pie, Eld's family operation is caught in the cross fire. Hunted by gangsters and squeezed by the Depression, Eld, Maggie, and the children are scattered. Eld crosses to Canada on a doomed quest, while Maggie and her daughter are forced to find sanctuary in a religion more cult than creed. When the family finally reuintes, they are not the same strivers who took a chance on a better life. In the end, Eld pays a staggering price for his version of the American Dream, and those he loves most pay even more. Based partly on family lore, Matt Riordan's evocative second novel follwoing his debut, The North Line, presents the gritty reality of survival at a desperate time in America's history when even hope was too much to ask for." -- Jacket flap