In Russell Banks’ Lost Memory of Skin, a young man–known only as the Kid–must rebuild his life in the wake of incarceration for sexual offenses.  Having no home or family, he is forced to live with other ex-cons under a Florida causeway until he meets The Professor, a university sociologist. The two men forge a tentative partnership, the Kid wary of the Professor’s motives even as he accepts the counsel and financial assistance of the older man. In this powerhouse new work, Banks probes the zeitgeist of a troubled society where zero tolerance has erased any hope of compassion and where isolating the offender has perhaps created a new kind of victim.