![—Booklist](https://sohopress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/blog-00.png)
Scrapper is rooted in the tragic reality of a once-great city’s collapse, but Bell seems to be revisiting some of [In the House upon the Dirt between the Lake and the Woods‘s] fundamental concerns: obligations to loved ones, redemption from past misdeeds … Bell’s portrait of a city brought to its knees is riveting.