Author and teacher Bret Lott returned to his old post at the College of Charleston last fall after a successful three-year stint as editor of the Southern Review at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. This summer, Lott returns to his metier with his highly anticipated seventh novel, "Ancient Highway."

In many respects, "Ancient Highway" is what we might expect from Lott: the story of a single family, traced through three generations, with great attention paid to the minutiae of everyday life. Lott's focus on the family is arguably his stock in trade, and despite the not-unfounded criticism that he occasionally veers a bit sentimental, he is very good at rendering complex familial relationships.