Meanwhile, Alessandra, a failed actress, returns to her native Gravesend after the death of her cancer-stricken mother, torn between the desperate need to escape back to Los Angeles as quickly as possible and the ease with which she could sink back into neighborhood life. Alessandra and Conway are walking eerily similar paths--staring down the rest of their lives, caring for their aging fathers, lost in the youths they squandered--and each must decide what comes next In the tradition of American noir authors like Dennis Lehane and James Ellroy, William Boyle'sGravesend brings the titular neighborhood to life in this story of revenge, desperation, and escape.