Going

In Granada, a boy in a dress begs in the white alleys of the old town. A runaway, and vulnerable, he turns for protection to an American painter, Madeleine James, who is living in the city, and to her new friend, the poet Cy Jacobs. Although the two adults mean to help the boy, they unwittingly expose him to yet more peril. Soon, all the characters in the story have been scraped on the touchstone of hard realities and made to show their mettle, be it base or gold. This novel, at times somber and at times flaring with intensity, calls up indelibly the difficulties of making a good life--or a good death--in a world in which we are all, in one way or another, going.--From publisher description.