So I'm not a Southern writer in the commonly held sense of the term, like Faulkner or Eudora Welty, who took the South for their entire literary environment and subject matter.

The plot is described thus: "“A young boy in New York City Theo Decker miraculously survives an accident that takes the life of his mother. Knopf 1992.  60-66.

She won the WH Smith Literary Award for The Little Friend in 2003.