Winner of rare "double crown" of starred reviews from both Publishers Weekly and Kirkus Reviews. ¿ Publishers Weekly Featured Fiction selection. Simpson Weems is a 36-year-old aspiring poet whose life has been on hold-to the breaking point. All he needs to fulfill his potential is to move to San Francisco, but he's torn between his long-held dream of being a great artist and obligations to his ailing mother and his emotionally volatile brother, the all-demanding Bartholomew. Will someone in his family have to die before he can get to California? And how might that be arranged?