“…a high-energy and entertaining performance.” —AudioFile

“A book to appreciate as we peer at the faces of strangers outside our windows and wall ourselves in.”—Boston Globe

“A compelling story of myopic misunderstanding and mutual tragedy.”—Chicago Tribune

Winner of the 2007 Audie Award

Topanga Canyon is home to two couples on a collision course. Los Angeles liberals Delaney and Kyra Mossbacker lead an ordered sushi-and-recycling existence in a newly gated hilltop community: he is a sensitive nature writer, she an obsessive realtor. Mexican illegals Candido and America Rincon desperately cling to their vision of the American Dream as they fight off starvation in a makeshift camp deep in the ravine.

From the moment a freak accident brings Candido and Delany into intimate contact, these four and their opposing worlds gradually intersect in what becomes a tragicomedy of error and misunderstanding.