The Good Mother of Marseille

I had the opportunity to read a pre-publication copy of the book, and this was the blurb I offered:

The Good Mother of Marseille by Christopher X. Shade is a painfully beautiful novel, infused with peril and propelled by suspense. In powerful prose, Shade renders a complex mosaic of a city's underbelly. These interlocking portraits of characters on the edge, barely hanging on, are filled with struggle—people who feel very real, confronting loss, doubtful futures, and their own existential fears. —Clifford Garstang, author of What the Zhang Boys Know and In an Uncharted Country