In the Slammer with Carol Smith: A Novel

After twenty years in jails, psychiatric wards, and halfway houses following her peripheral involvement in a radical students' bombing plot, thirty-six-year-old Carol Smith finds herself squatting in Spanish Harlem. She spends her days socializing with homeless neighbors, dealing with a difficult social worker, and walking the streets with Alphonse, a South African vagrant and self-described actor. Alphonse becomes an inspiring presence in Carol's life. As she begins to reduce her antidepressant use, she reflects on her memories—particularly her upbringing by two aunts in Massachusetts. Through this process of remembering, she seeks to understand her troubled history and find community.