It's Hester's fortieth birthday when she's diagnosed with terminal cancer, and she knows immediately what she must do: abandon her possessions and drive to California to kill her estranged father. With no friends or family tying her to the life she's built in New York City, she quits her wildly lucrative job in corporate law and sets off. She hasn't made it far when she runs into John, an environmental activist in need of a ride to different superfund sites across the United States. From five-star Midwestern hotels to cultish Southwestern compounds, the two slowly make their way across the country. But will the revelations they make along the way dissuade Hester from her final goal?
Skillful ... Shows we’re getting selfishness all wrong. As uproariously funny as a takedown of our deadly society can be, the novel is also an urgent call to exchange possession for belonging. Hester is proof that, eventually, capitalism destroys even those it seems to benefit most.
Courage’s debut is a fork jabbed into the electric socket of America. You can’t look away and, thanks to its bitter wit, can’t stop laughing ... There are minor flaws ... A sun-blasted comic wonder.
