Scott Tucker

Better Strangers Scott Tucker

Robert, Cass, and Julia share a complex history going back to theircollege days in California-a triangle of lovers; a baby born in amarijuana field; a night of changing names and fleeing to Seattle. There are scars from ax blades and broken glass. Uneasy truces. Prying neighbors. The threat of war. And enough vegetablesgrowing in the yard to feed a household through the winter. Now,on the morning of Robert Hamlin's 45th birthday, in the last yearof setting fire to the world, everything is about to ignite again. How many strangers make a family? When does water flow thickerthan blood? The universe is a random and violent place, after all,where souls-the lucky ones-find their way back eventually tothe source of human kindness. Tucker collects his characters fromthe streets and his hopes for them from the stars. This is the storyof human history, staged on a sixth of an acre in north Seattle.