Cole is a local good ol' boy, from whose close-knit family Lusa feels coldly excluded.

ECONOMIST: Recent American fiction: Where the wild things are | The

Down in the valley, Lusa Maluf Landowski, a well educated and worldly girl from the big smoke of Lexington, Kentucky, argues bitterly with her husband, Cole.

ECONOMIST: Recent American fiction: Where the wild things are | The

Lusa is sulking inside, hurt and angry after yet another row with her husband, when her nostrils are tickled by the familiar scent of honeysuckle, drifting in through an open window.

ECONOMIST: Recent American fiction: Where the wild things are | The