A true account of grief and secret love: the tale, through fifteen-year-old eyes, of a family clinging to the memory of a lost child, and a young woman struggling to define herself in the wake of his loss. As children, siblings Alison and Roy were so close that their mother called them by one name: Alroy. But on a cool summer morning when Alison was fifteen, she woke to learn that Roy, eighteen, was dead. This is Smith's account of the impact of that loss--on herself, on her parents, and on a deeply religious community. Alison hoards food for her lost brother, hides in the backyard fort they built together, and waits for him to return. In the end, she finds her own way to survive: a startling and taboo first love that helps her discover a world beyond the death of her brother. --From publisher description.