In a pitiless story of prying suburban self-righteousness, Patricia Highsmith in
troduces the Alderman family as they descend into moral crisis. When small-town
insurance salesman Richard Alderman becomes a born-again Christian, his once tig
ht-knit family quickly begins to rip apart at the seams. He and his youngest son
, Robbie, embrace their newfound faith, while his elder son Arthur rejects it.
Caught in the middle of the ensuing web of lies, his wife, Lois, tries to keep
the family together, but when the church elders start to interfere in Arthur's
love life, events spiral toward violence. In this masterful late work, Highsmith
weaves a powerful tale about blind faith and the peculiar ideas of justice that
lie underneath the veneer of respectability.
