<p><i>The Lost Country</i> centers on Edgewater who's recently been discharged from the navy and a one-armed con man named Roosterfish who takes him under his wing as they both search desperately for a forgotten past and a future that may never come. <i>The Lost Country</i> cements Gay as one of the strongest voices in Southern literature alongside Cormac McCarthy Flannery O'Connor and William Faulkner.</p>