Fleeing Las Vegas, and her abusive boyfriend, Allison Johnson moves to Reno, intent on making a new life for herself. But haunted by the mistakes of her past, her only comfort seems to come from the imaginary conversations she has with Paul Newman, and the characters he played. But slowly the chance of a new life begins to emerge.

15 year-old Charley Thompson wants a home, food on the table, a high school he can attend for more than part of a year and some structure to his life. 'Lean on Pete' opens as Charley and his father arrive in Portland, Oregon, where the young man is about to take his first steps in the world of horse racing.

Severely wounded in the Iraq war, Leroy has lived a half-life in a group home for eight years. Unable to bear it any longer, he commits a desperate act which helps him to disappear to another place. Freddie is the night porter at the home, who works two jobs yet can't make ends meet. Buried in debt from his younger daughter's medical bills, he's forced to consider a criminal proposition. Pauline is the nurse who tends Leroy, who lives her life in an uncomplicated way, emotionally removed, until she meets a young runaway. An extraordinary portrait of contemporary America, and a testament to...

This novel tells the story of two brothers, Frank and Jerry Lee. Taking to the road in an attempt to escape the hit and run accident caused by Jerry Lee, the novel goes back to tell the story of their unhappy lives.