Lions

The author of the critically acclaimed, award-winning debut novel, Lamb returns with “a story of haunted histories and broken promises” (O, The Oprah Magazine, Must-Read Book of the Summer).
 
Set on the Colorado high plains, the town of Lions is nearly deserted. Built to be a glorious city, it was never fit for farming, mining, trading, or any of the industries its pioneers imagined. The Walkers have been settled on its barren terrain for generations—a simple family in a town still enthralled by promises of bigger, better, and brighter. But when a stranger appears, his unsettling presence sets off a chain reaction that will change the fates of everyone he encounters.
 
When the patriarch John Walker dies, his son Gordon must choose between leaving for college with his girlfriend, Leigh, or staying with his family to look after their failing welding shop—and carry on a mysterious family legacy. While Leigh is desperate to make a better life in the world beyond Lions, Gordon is strangely hesitant to leave it behind. And as more families abandon the town, it seems that listening to reason must come at the cost of betraying his own heart.
 
“Nadzam weaves a strange and mesmerizing story” that explores ambition and an American obsession with self-improvement, the responsibilities we have to ourselves and each other, as well as the everyday illusions that pass for a life worth living (Publishers Weekly).