Saints of the HouseholdSaints of the Household

"Max and Jay have always depended on each other for their survival. Growing up with an abusive father, the two brothers have learned that the only way to protect themselves and their mother is to keep their heads down. And create art. But when they hear a girl in trouble in the woods after school, instinct takes over and they intervene, interrupting a fight and beating up their high school's star soccer player. When the authorities arrive and statements are taken, Max and Jay realize they may have misread the situation. Did they? With their college dreams in jeopardy, this one act of violence shakes their idea of who they thought they were--as brothers, as sons, as men. Max and Jay will have to reach back to their Bribri (Indigenous Costa Rican) roots to find their way forward--and face the truth of what really happened in those woods. Told in alternating points of view using vignettes and poems, Ari Tison's debut novel draws on her Bribri American identity to paint a slow-burning small-town drama about brotherhood, abuse, recovery, and doing the right thing."--