Royal Family

<b>A rich haunting novel of street life in San Francisco's Mission District from the National Book Award-winning author of<i> Europe Central</i></b> <p/>In <i>The Royal Family</i> William T. Vollmann uses the story of two brothers to construct a haunting series of parallels between the lives of the dispossessed and the anxious middle class. Henry Tyler is a failing private detective in San Francisco. When the love of his life Irene--who happens to be married to his brother John an ambitious contract lawyer--commits suicide he clings despairingly to her ghost. Struggling to turn his grief into something precious Henry enters into a new life of nightmare beauty and degradation as he attempts to track down the legendary Queen of the Prostitutes. <p/>Crafted out of language by turns eloquent humorous sensual and obscene and full of vividly rendered depictions of low-life bars office politics and hobo camps here are Vollmann's familiar but ever surprising characters--the seekers the vigilantes the hypocrites the sex workers. He has woven their stories into a vivid and unforgettable novel about the eerie paradoxes of possession and loss.