Safe from the Neighbors is a novel of unusual richness and depth, one that's as wise about the small shocks within a marriage as it is about the troubled history of Mississippi. Steve Yarbrough is a formidably talented novelist, shuttling between the past and present with a grace that feels effortless.

When I was writing 'The Abstinence Teacher,' I really tried to immerse myself in contemporary American evangelical culture.

Back then, when everybody thought the world would last forever, nobody had time for anything.

My mythic version of America is very much about parents and children, and in my experience, the suburban setting is where that particular drama plays out. Which isn't to say that there aren't parents and children in cities or on farms. I just don't know them.

It's not the cheating. It's the hunger for an alternative. The refusal to accept unhappiness.

I find that even small changes sometimes jog you out of a mental rut.

It just took some people a little longer than others to realize how few words they needed to get by, how much of life they could negotiate in silence.