The school on Heart's Content Road

by Carolyn Chute

The school on Heart's Content Road spirals out from the story of Mickey Gammon, a disaffected fifteen-year-old dropout who has been evicted from his home by his overwrought half-brother. With the help of his new friend, Rex York, the captain of the local militia, Mickey is introduced to the secretive world of the Settlement. Run by a man known to many as 'The Prophet,' the Settlement is a rural cooperative in alternative energy, farm produce, and locally made goods. Falsely demonized by the media as a compound of sin, the Settlement's true nature remains foreign to outsiders. It is at the Settlement where Mickey's life collides with that of another deserted child, six-year-old Jane--a cunning, beautiful girl of mixed race, whose mother is in jail on trumped-up drug charges. 'Secret Agent' Jane prowls the Settlement in her heart-shaped sunglasses, imagining that her childish plans to bring down the community will reunite her with her mother. As they struggle to adjust to their new, comp