Late last spring (sorry) I read a modern-day rural poverty story, Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson. This one is so good I can hardly believe it's a debut novel. The main character, Pete Snow, is a social worker dealing with families in Tenmile Montana - the starting incident concerns Benjamin Pearl, the malnourished, nearly-feral son of a local survivalist. At the same time his own family has imploded, addict wife divorced and daughter dissappeared. At one point he says to her "My job is taking kids away from people like us". Anyway it's well worth reading. I can hardly wait for more from this author.