All I Have in This World: A Novel
Parker’s latest novel (The Watery Part of the World, 2011) follows two wandering souls who seek to reconcile heartbreak and failure. Marcus is on the road to Mexico, after losing his family’s long-held North Carolina farmhouse in foreclosure. He is also leaving behind his latest botched enterprise, an educational center dedicated to the Venus flytrap. Meanwhile, Maria leaves Oregon for her hometown of Pinto Canyon and settles in with her distant mother. Maria remains tormented over the suicide of her high-school boyfriend 10 years earlier, and her return to the small West Texas town has been far from welcomed. Marcus’ and Maria’s paths unexpectedly cross on a used-car lot, where both are so taken by a 1984 Buick Electra that the two strangers hurriedly enter an agreement to co-own the vehicle. As their friendship grows, Marcus and Maria begin to confront their pasts and how their actions affected those closest to them. Parker deftly captures his characters’ uncertainties and hesitations as they struggle to move away from regret and toward the absolution they so desire. --Leah Strauss