Equality is the name of the small Alabama town to which Cordelia, the protagonist of Lucinda Ebersole"s first novel, Death in Equality, returns to die. She is the seventh in an unbroken matrilineal line of women, all named Cordelia, who have been born or died in this same town. As last in the line, it is the burden of Ebersole"s protagonist to carry that name to its proper resting place. Cordelia, a writer, is dying of lung cancer; she narrates her own story, and the stories of her family and town, sometimes lucidly, sometimes while under the influence of painkillers. The resulting narrative is dreamlike and tinged with regret as befits a chronicle of leaving a life half- lived.