In The Death of Sweet Mister, award-winning author, Daniel Woodrell delivers his most powerful work to date, a darkly penetrating look at a young man's descent into the world of adults.

Shuggie Akins is a lonely, overweight thirteen-year-old who has no friends in West Table, Missouri-or anywhere else. He lives in the cemetery caretaker's house with his scantily clad, floozy mother, Glenda, who spends most days intoxicated, and his pill-popping father, Red, a drunken criminal with a lengthy record and a tendency for violence. Then along comes Jimmy Vin Pearce in his shiny green T-bird and his smart city clothes. Soon, he and Glenda are engaged in a torrid affair that will set in motion a series of events that are shocking in their unpredictability and inevitability.

In this "raw, heartbreaking, and unbelievably good" (Kansas City Star) look at a young man's descent into the world of adults, Daniel Woodrell's Shuggie Akins is perfectly drawn-and with as powerful a voice-as Huck Finn or Holden Caufield.