This sprawling and often brutal novel, set in the rich farmlands of California's Salinas Valley, follows the intertwined destinies of two families--the Trasks' and the Hamilton's--whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poisonous rivalry of Cain and Abel. The story of two brothers, Aron is a clean-cut model student, engaged to be married, the pride of his hardworki…
Eliza Naumann, an unremarkable nine-yaer-old, feels out of place in her gifted family until she discovers a talent for competitive spelling that changes everything. Once-distant teachers regard her with a new fondness and studious classmates begin saving her a place at lunch; her father, meanwhile, begins to lavish attention upon her that he had formerly reserved for her celebral elder brother…