Mohawk

Mohawk, a small town in upstate New York, once owed its rise to the leather industry, and has paid dearly for it. The cancer rate here is many times higher than in the rest of America, the leather no longer in demand, the town forgotten. It is the late sixties, but the people here have no part in the great changes of that time: they have no extravagant dreams, just want the best for their families and a decent job. But there's the feud between the Gaffneys and the Grouses that keeps the whole town busy. In the middle of it all: Dallas Younger, a former high school football star, and his ex-wife Anne, who is in a hopeless battle with her mother over the care of her ailing father. Their son Randall is neglecting school: faith in the future is something you have to be able to afford in Mohawk.
Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Russo draws a portrait of a town in upstate New York and tells of the lives of its people, of derailed ambitions and old loves, secret hatreds and quiet hopes. Whoever reads this novel understands a lot about an America we deal with far too little.