SOUTH OF REASON

Kayla Marie Sanders, on the cusp of a tricky adolescence, tries to understand why her parents have left Cameron, Tex., and moved to Rosalita, in Eppes's poignant debut. Overheard conversations between Kayla's mother and grandmother suggest that something other than chance is behind the family's decision to live next door to beautiful, eccentric Lou Jean Perry and her son, Charles Dale. (Everyone gets an articulated middle name, in a somewhat stale Southern-fiction convention.) As things in Kayla's household grow stranger and tenser, she struggles in Sherwood Anderson fashion to understand circumstances and motives beyond her control. Impressive if not groundbreaking, Eppes's tale is unassuming and complex in its execution, full of rich, authentic details, colorful and often surprising metaphors and expertly imagined characters. They have to draw upon their deepest reserves of compassion and self-knowledge to navigate a tumultuous sea of conflicting feelings. The "mystery" of the Sanderses' move—that Kayla and Charles Dale are half-siblings—is dispensed with early on; the larger palette is what's important, and the story plows forward to a conclusion both painful and necessary, which poses as many emotional questions as it answers. Along the way are more than a few resonant moments in the kitchen between Kayla and her mysterious kindred spirit, Lou Jean; fans of Like Water for Chocolate will enjoy the celebration of food preparation as a mystical ritual. This finely crafted debut marks Eppes as a writer worth watching. Author appearances in Texas. (Mar. 5)

Forecast:Strong sales in the South should jump-start this appealing and accessible first novel, and a blurb from Richard Russo will alert readers across the country to its merits.