Shelter Half
By Carol Bly
254 pages. Holy Cow!.

In Shelter Half (Holy Cow!), Minnesota writer Carol Bly's only and unique novel (she died in 2007), a body turns up on a stretch of country road. But it is the death of the spirit, the loss of faith or morality, that threatens the inhabitants of the tiny town of St. Fursey. The real clue to this mystery lies in its title, referring to the half-tent an American infantryman once carried with him to the battlefield, and buttoned to someone else's half for mutual protection. A covert metaphor provisioned with forgiveness and trust.