num_pages: 304
description: Wise-cracking Wiley Cantrell is loud and roaringly outrageousand he needs to be to keep his deeply religious neighbors and family in the Deep South at bay. A failed writer on food stamps Wiley works a minimum wage job and barely manages to keep himself and his deaf son Noah more than a stones throw away from Dumpster-diving.Noah was a meth baby and has the birth defects to prove it. He sees how lonely his father is and tries to help him find a boyfriend while Wiley struggles to help Noah have a relationship with his incarcerated mother who believes the best way to feed a child is with a slingshot. No wonder Noah becomes Wileys biggest supporter when Boston nurse Jackson Ledbetter walks past Wileys cash register and sets his sugar tree on fire.Jackson falls like a wet mule wearing concrete boots for Wileys sense of humor. And while Wiley represents much of the best of the South Jackson is hiding a secret that could threaten this new family in the making.When North meets South the cultural misunderstandings are many but so are the laughs and the tears but as they say down in Dixie its all good.
language: English
title: Shaking the Sugar Tree
publisher: Dreamspinner Press