';Travel brochures, postcards, and license plates from decades past touted Michigan as ';The Water Winter Wonderland!' And in Adam Schuitema's stories, it is just that: a wonderland where men and boys collide with sand and snow, flora and fauna; where nature is not only somewhere to explore, but a place to hide. In his Michigan, deer frolic through urban areas, old men pilfer sand dunes, and the woods are the best place to hide your Playboys. From childhood to adulthood, these guys struggle to do the right thingsearching the woods, gazing out at the lake, sifting the ashen sandsfor a clue as to how to become the men they need to be. Schuitema's Freshwater Boys is the literary equivalent of an early spring leap into the still icy waters of the bay: shocking, refreshing, cleansing. The best way to rouse a spirit drowsy from an endless, arduous winter.' Michael Zadoorian, The Leisure Seeker and The Lost Tiki Palaces of Detroit