There’s a beautiful formality to this writing that beckons a reader in, and then the vibrancy of the dialogue and the surreal allure of the scenes surprise and open up the story. A novella both stamped in time, and timeless. Flood has made something memorable here.”—Aimee Bender, author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake and The Color Master

On the day that Minister Peters boards a train from South Carolina heading north, he has nothing left but ghosts: the ghost of his murdered wife, the ghost of his drowned daughter, the ghosts of his father and his grandmother and the people who disappeared from his town without trace or explanation. In the cramped car, Minister finds himself in close quarters with three passengers also joining the exodus from the South--people seeking a new life, whose motives, declared or otherwise, will change Minister's life with devastating consequences.