<P align=center><STRONG>An intense, vibrant debut novel set among the back roads of Pennsylvania's mining country</STRONG></P><P>Harley Altmyer should be freed from his closed-minded coal town with its lack of jobs and no sense of humor.  Instead, he's constantly reminded of just how messed up his life really is.</P><P>With his mother in jail for killing his abusive father, Harley is an orphan with the responsibilities of an adult and the fiery libido of a teenager.  Just nineteen years old, he's marooned in the Pennsylvania backwoods caring for his three younger sisters.  Once he develops an obsession with the sexy, melancholic mother of two living down the road, he wants her so badly he hears he will explode.  But it's the family secrets, the lies, and the unspoken truths that light the fuse and erupt into a series of staggering surprises, leaving what's left of his family in tatters.  Through every ordeal, he could never have known that his endearing humor, love for his sisters, and bumbling heroics would redeem them all.</P><P>Funny and heartbreaking, Tawni O'Dell's pitch-perfect characters capture the maddening confusion of adolescence and the prickly nature of family with irony and unerring honesty.  Back Roads is a riveting novel by a formidable new talent.</P>