About the book: year / The night was warm, twilight inviting: middle-aged couples in pastel shirts, holding hands, walked along the old cracked sidewalks along the Mississippi. A group of college girls ran down the bike path in tracksuits and sneakers, talking as they ran, their matching blonde ponytails bouncing behind them. At eight, the street lights for entire blocks came on with a loud bang. Above, above the new green of the elms, the nighthawks uttered their shrill calls, their wings flashing like the silver stripes on the new first lieutenants.