With a tension that is redolent of Faulkner's love affair between Ike Snopes and his cow, the novel walks a tightrope between the familiar and the taboo. Thomas, a minor, falls in love with his teacher who is eight years his senior and the two develop a relationship. Yet, they see one another every day and their relationship is born of familiarity. Similarly, Shiloh, the familiar character of the slightly insane homeless man, pushes the limits of his social boundaries by finding love in deepest and darkest places of our social taboos.

The Best People in the World is Justin Tussing's first novel, though he's no stranger to the world of literature. Tussing is a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop and former Director of the Iowa Young Writers' Studio. Yet, the book possesses none of the manufactured qualities that so easily infect well-trained writers. Though the prose is polished, the story remains elemental and honest.

In the beginning of the book, Thomas works with his father at a plant that harnesses the power of the Ohio River for power. While the river supports the town and bequeaths its residents with an identity, the mighty waters are menacing, constantly threatening to wash them away. The novel like the river is a natural force, raw and powerful without ever losing control. Tussing, in an interview with The New Yorker remarked, " I'm fascinated by floods and I'm fascinated by the way people control them." And it is this delicate dance between power and control that Tussing's novel so expertly masters making him a writer to watch.