THE HEART OF IT ALL

An Ohio town’s economic decline highlights the woes and ties among families.

Kiefer opens his fourth novel with a crisp clause: “Death brought casseroles.” Friends and co-workers hope food will ease the pain of Tom and Sarah Bailey, a white couple who have just buried their 6-month-old son. The cause, and a piercing image: a hole in the heart. Tom’s Pakistani immigrant boss, Khalid Marwat, whose small electronics plant is the town’s chief employer, privately gives him $500. As the novel moves from autumn to spring in the time of Trump’s MAGA promises, Kiefer reveals the strains of a town barely afloat, its people living from paycheck to paycheck, piling up debt, fighting shame, seeking relief in small pleasures while hope frays. The problems aren’t original—the book recalls Richard Russo’s Nobody’s Fool, among other blue-collar elegies—but Kiefer has a sympathetic and probing eye that gives his characters solidity, kindling empathy and anxiety. Some sort of crisis seems to loom at every turn. Paula Chapman, “the only Black woman in town,” takes in her 19-year-old nephew, Anthony Shaw, so he can escape Cleveland’s street violence. The police later mistake him as a threat to Tom Bailey’s 17-year-old daughter, Janey, who is walking nearby; the young people soon start secretly dating. The shadow of racism returns when Tom rebukes a co-worker for referring to Khalid by the worst epithet. Janey’s brother, Charlie, is worried about a schoolmate whose brutish father seems capable of anything. The plant’s office manager copes with an abusive mother. There’s enough potential for disaster to keep a reader wondering when something will blow. No easy solutions seem likely. And yet, death brings casseroles. Kiefer knows kindness can help heal all sorts of wounds, maybe even a hole in the heart of a town. At least for a time.

A thoughtful look at those just getting by from a writer who deserves to be known.