Foreseeing a hopeless future in barrooms and parking lots, cagey 13-year-old

Luli McMullen bolts headlong from the heartland, aiming at Las Vegas where

she expects to find herself a sugar daddy.

Almost immediately, crooked-bodied Eddie Kreezer, a roving obsessive with a violent

streak, and a fading but lovely grifter named Glenda begin to do battle for Lulis

head and heart.

On their perilous journey westward, Luli is introduced to drifters, lowlifes, strippers,

speed freaks, gold-diggers, and a Libertarian with a dog named Karl. Along the

way, she learns the truth of American rootlessness and discovers both the power

and the peril of her own sexual curiosity.

Part coming-of-age story and part raggedy picaresque, Hick leads us at a blinding

pace down broken roads through a world that seems to this extraordinary and

indomitable young girl dangerously uncharted.