In the rolling hills of the late 19th-century South, Bill Hawes has been branded 'Lazy Bill' by everyone who knows him, including his own family. Born awkward where his brothers were graceful, clumsy where they were capable, Bill has spent his life absorbing their laughter and his mother's sighs. When he attempts to prove himself through a scheme involving some gypsies and a horse trade, the result is spectacular, humiliating failure. Yet beneath his rusting reputation lies a young man who dreams of becoming a lawyer, who yearns for respect, and who sees something worth pursuing in a girl named Guinea. Read's novel captures something timeless: the pain of being underestimated, the stubborn fire of ambition that refuses to die even when the whole world has written you off. It's a story about the distance between who we are and who people believe us to be, and whether we can bridge that gap.
