House of Sticks: A Novel of Foreclosure, Desperation, Best Intentions and Betrayal (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781971400099)

Four desperate families meet in a foreclosure support group. With their backs against the wall, they agree on a creative but risky plan: to give up on three of the houses and all move into a single dwelling, rescue it from foreclosure, live there for a year, and then sell, hopefully reaping enough from savings and profit that all four families will be able to start afresh.

The four families prove to be a disparate and volatile mix. There's a working-class husband and wife who seem to carry a grudge against everyone and everything in the world. A Mexican American family wonders if they'd fare better returning to their homeland. Two childless seniors, after a long, private lifetime, are rueful about being packed in with strangers. And an upwardly mobile Black couple who carry a shameful secret and a shaky belief they can start over and create a better life.

They say charity begins at home.

In the case of these four families, so does jealousy, lust, greed, and deception.