Heartbreaking and Victorious

An injured girl is recovering in the hospital, while two regular visitors quietly sit by her bedside and forge their own relationship apart from her. This girl goes on to live with a family member, as she has no apparent nuclear family to take her in. The storyline ping pongs back and forth, from her early years, to the "present" (the 1980s), and to the past of one of her hospital visitors. Gradually these threads all coalesce, and you realize what they've all lost, gained and are seeking. With elements of racism, classism, homelessness, mental illness and abandonment, I can't say this is an uplifting book, but there are triumphs, too.