Sugar Town , by Robert Nicholls , free Sugar Town is a place that conceals a shameful deed. More than a decade ago, a series of terrible crimes was committed against a single family and, through resolute inaction, all were left unresolved. Among the very few people in town who know nothing of the crimes are, ironically, the victims. The story's thirteen year old narrator, Ruth, knows only that, once upon a time, her grandmother suffered a violent and fatal attack in her home, her mother suicided and her father, a minister, abandoned his Australian home and family to start a mission in New Guinea. What remains of her family is herself, her piously intense 24 year old sister who suffers from repressed memory syndrome and her eleven year old brother who, with recently diagnosed late-onset occipital epilepsy, has become prone to periodic hallucinations. When Ruth discovers letters that hint at a community-wide deception, she begins to ask questions, in the process drawing stran...
