"Masterful . . . Somewhere between Faulkner and Conroy."-The Denver Post In Ruin Creek, David Payne revisits North Carolina's windswept Outer Banks and the Madden family. Writing in the contrapuntal voices of eleven-year-old Joey and his parents, May and Jimmy, David Payne portrays a family that breaks apart, heals, and endures. Joey bears the burden of his parents' increasingly unhappy union. As he struggles to cope with his fractured family life, Joey turns to his grandfather who explains that "a time may come when a person has to let go of what he loves in order to save himself." Imbued in Payne's trademark lyrical prose and psychological acuity, this is a novel "full of life, full of wisdom, full of words that singe, sing, and somehow console" (The Boston Globe). "The most gifted novelist of his generation."-The Dallas Morning News "A powerful, lyrical novel that is a joy to read."-The New York Times Book Review