Gillis Huckabee

Meet Gillis Huckabee, the shy, awkward protagonist of Sean Conway's new novel. When Gillis's mother dies unexpectedly in the opening chapter, his world suddenly turns topsy-turvy. Just weeks away from high school graduation, he finds himself desperately fighting to hold the rest of his family together. His already uninvolved father becomes even more uninvolved, making the tragic decision to remove himself, once and for all, from the family. In the aftermath, little sister Beth goes off to live with an aunt, while Gillis joins older brother Kerry down in Florida, where Kerry plays minor league baseball for the small-town Palm Bay Pilots. Now an invisible hot dog vendor in the same ballpark where his brother is fast becoming the team hero, Gillis struggles with his new place in the world. Mourning his mother, hating his father, ridden with guilt for having left his sister behind, and resentful that his brother has not missed a single beat, Gillis begins a rudderless journey that will ultimately take him into the depths of desperation and back again.