In a small coastal California town, erosion is claiming the modest oceanside houses so full of history and memories — they're just falling into the sea. On a psychological level, the same thing is happening to some of the town's most loyal residents.

Walker ("Walk" to the locals) is the police chief in his decaying hometown. He has befriended a rebellious 13-year-old girl who would do just about anything to escape her troubled mother, but she's held back by a fierce love for her little brother, who's 5. The two are inseparable.

The town is rocked when Walk's childhood friend, Vincent, gets out of prison and tries to pick up with a star-crossed lover. He sticks to himself, but the town clearly doesn't want him there.

A murder is the kindling that lights the town on fire, with long-timers turning on their own.

Will the two children find a home in all this madness? Can Walk survive countless disappointments and rebuild a broken life?

In an extraordinary novel of love and loss, Chris Whitaker reminds us that we form our own families as our relatives and lovers fade away or fail us. His message: No one is alone. There is a home for us all, if we can be lucky enough to find it.

Ginny Greene is a copy editor at the Star Tribune.

We Begin at the End
By: Chris Whitaker.
Publisher: Henry Holt, 384 pages, $27.99.