Imagine a past you must have known, even if you weren't there. Birney, Illinois. Population 4,742. December 7, 1941. Ten-year-old Artie Garber sees his brother Roy go off to war. Artie and his friends watch the skies for German planes, and the streets for spies. When Roy returns, his girlfriend is with another guy. The scenes, sounds, and images of Birney are at once lost in time, yet still with us today in this masterful novel of loss and growth.