Residents of a homeless camp fight to head off eviction and shore up their fragile community in Borcyckowski’s luminous novel.

Phibius Emerson is a Black student who was recently expelled from college after he tried to burn his dorm-room furniture—now, he lives in a Sacramento homeless encampment. When he’s on his bipolar meds, he’s a smart, upstanding kid trying to bring some stability and aid to the camp by getting his friends legal assistance and drafting rules on trash and noise. His fellow campers include Lucy, a recently unemployed woman living in her car; William, a man on disability who edges toward a romance with Lucy; Mr. Maxstead, an uncannily nondescript man obsessed with military aircraft; Paul, a 60-something saxophonist who functions well on heroin; Mike and Linda, a couple who barely function at all on meth; Thomas, a Marine vet with PTSD; and Joseph Little Bear, an Indigenous orphan and itinerant street preacher. The campers survive on meager benefit payments, leftovers scrounged from restaurants, and panhandling. Sometimes, they don’t get by: Phibius has a breakdown and gets sent to the psych ward, Linda overdoses, and Mike gets arrested for possession. These disturbances attract the ire of local homeowners who claim the camp poses a danger to a nearby preschool. When the city tries to bulldoze the camp, Phibius fights back with the help of idealistic law student Lin Yang. Meanwhile, campers start drifting away: William and Lucy head north to Mendocino to pursue the dream of starting a marijuana farm, while Joseph wanders down to Bakersfield, walking the highways and hitching rides.

The author takes a deep dive into the lives of his characters, exploring everything from their legal status (Phibius bones up on the niceties of Martin v. City of Boise, a federal court decision that bans cities from evicting the homeless from camps if they are not provided indoor shelter) to their everyday challenges. The meandering narrative unfolds as a set of character studies; some get back on their feet after a bout of bad luck, others stay mired in addiction and mental illnesses, many feel a wariness about forging relationships with other people who may be either judgmental or damaged, and all glean simple pleasures from threadbare circumstances, like an unexpectedly delicious soup-kitchen dinner. Borcyckowski’s subtle, evocative prose delves into his characters’ psychological travails and skillfully orchestrates the tangible details of the camp and its denizens with a blighted lyricism. (“It seemed she was suffering, and her body jolted slightly against Mike’s shoulder as the spasms of tears swept through her; repeatedly, like an insistent wind that blows against you. It blows the papers away and the food wrappers around you away and the note you made about tomorrow; where you were going tomorrow, all of them gone. Forever.”) The result is a vivid and captivating yarn that reveals the offbeat humanity of this most marginalized group.

A rich, moving saga of people living on the edge, full of plangent defeats and unsung victories.