Corey Goltz is fifteen years old when his mother, Gloria, is diagnosed with ALS. Estranged from his father, and increasingly responsible for meeting both his mother's needs and his own, Corey is determined to be the hero Gloria needs - at any cost. But when his father Leonard re-enters the picture, Corey's beliefs - about honor and love, duty and devotion, and the uses and misuses of power - are sorely tested. From the author of the PEN/Faulkner Award-winning debut novel "Preparation for the Next Life".