Scrapple

Fiction. Music. Imagine stepping into an apartment expecting to meet your brother and his young family only to discover twin babies abandoned to a merciless and empty interior. In prose that resonates with energy and introspection, Pushcart Prize nominee Siân Griffiths brings us to late 90s Philadelphia and the Flannigan family--15-year-old Robert, his younger sister, Bridget, and their recently-widowed mother--who have just made the hardest decision of their lives and left Oregon, and the only home they have ever known, to be with the oldest Flannigan sibling, Sean, and his twins. But Sean's absence throws the family into even deeper turmoil as Robert searches for his brother in the wake of their father's death and the family's monumental move. Navigating the dangerous shoals of a strange city and unfamiliar emotions, Robert is given the necessary insight and courage to survive this new life through his friendship with Jerome, a bisexual African American classmate. Set at a time when bullying and gun violence in schools were first becoming headlines, SCRAPPLE is a clear-eyed, streetwise tribute both to the basic human quest to know ourselves and to our lasting ability to make deep connections with others, no matter where we find ourselves.