The Flawless Skin of Ugly People

Do people have to be beautiful to be loved? Hobbie-this novel€s darkly romantic hero-has been banished to homely man exile in the North Georgia Mountains, where his enemies are mirrors and bears. Things are not going well for Hobbie. His skin is a "pizza face," super-sized, with extra pepperoni and pitted olives. Job status? Former bank teller. Love life? His common-law wife Kari has gone AWOL at a weight-loss clinic in North Carolina. But just as it seems Hobbie is doomed to go through life as a sweet, self-pitying “anonymous joke,€ he jumps out of his skin and becomes downright heroic. Can Hobbie rescue Kari from the weight-loss clinic? Can he pull his fractured family together? Plastic surgery-will he or won€t he? Will love endure if Hobbie€s skin clears up, Kari drops pounds, and ugly people become flawless?