A simple summation would be it's the story of a man whose parents both die of cancer within five weeks of each other, and his life caring for his brother afterwards. There is a beautiful segment on the Real World. Not only is this book beautifully written, but it's beautifully put together. The cover art is an actual painting. You don't see much of that anymore. And if you bother to look under the cover, you'll see that printed on the book itself is two quotes:

Mercy is not a cure.
Quiet has its own set of problems.