Touch and Go — Thad Nodine

To escape an addiction, a young blind man in California steps into a station wagon with his friends and their foster kids to deliver a handmade casket to a dying grandfather in Florida. As they battle their way across the southern half of the nation, this rag-tag American family falls prey to love and lies, greed and violence, crime and Katrina.

With a voice reminiscent of John Irving, Nodine produces a classic “road-picture” novel that is part Travels with Charley, part As I Lay Dying, and part On The Road.

Touch and Go is a rich and rangy story about the careful and careless ways we treat each other -- and ourselves -- in a fast-paced, changing world. Kevin, the novel's blind narrator, is one of the most perceptive figures in recent fiction. And his desire to do no harm is contagious. Through Kevin's rich senses and boundless compassion, Nodine gives us a multicultural portrait of a true America. And he does so with deep affection for everyone along the way.