Olive is a little girl who dreams of winning the Little Miss Sunshine contest. Her family wants her dream to come true, but they are so dysfunctional that they can barely make it through a day without some disaster befalling them. Olive's father, Richard, is unsuccessful as a motivational speaker. He is barely on speaking terms with Olive's mother. Her uncle Frank has attempted suicide following an unsuccessful romance with a male graduate student....

After a plane crash, thirteen-year-old Brian spends fifty-four days in the wilderness, learning to survive with only the aid of a hatchet given him by his mother, and learning also to survive his parents' divorce.

"When William Conroy, a former college professor, is sentenced to life in prison for vehicular manslaughter, it seems like his life is over. But when a fellow inmate tells Conroy that in the past two years fourteen inmates have died at the prison, and then turns up dead the next day, Conroy realizes he is in more danger than he ever imagined"--Container.