Adopted as a child in 1930, Wiley Silenowicz is raised in the St. Louis home of his cousins, S.L. and Lila Silenowicz, and their daughter, Nonie, in a coming-of-age story that follows Wiley from childhood to adulthood Amazon.com description: Product Description: Acclaimed New Yorker writer Brodkey set the literary world ablaze with this much-talked-about debut novel--a literary tour de force about an adopted child in the early 1930s who is raised in the St. Louis household of his cousins. Impressive. . . . The work of a lifetime. . . . As haunted by love, death, and madness as The Oresteia".--Washington Post Book World"