One man's death leads his brother into the labyrinth of memory. A piece of land holds the key. A story of family, of broken ties and longstanding grudges, Things in Brown Paper weaves a tale across time that is at once a mystery and a biography of a forgotten era. As Winston pieces together the story of a land steeped in legend, he begins to uncover the bonds that are wrought from blood, and stronger than the iron it carries. Recounting a long history of labor, moonshine, and murder, Irven's second novel is a Southern Gothic about the heights of love and the depths of depravity unfolding over three generations.