THE HANGMAN’S CHILDREN <i> by Donald Hays (A Morgan Entrekin Book/ Atlantic Monthly Press: $18.95; 444 pp.)</i>

“Hays captures the defiant delight of people who believe that when laws serve power instead of justice being an outlaw is an honorable path. And perhaps most important, Hays gets to the heart of love, the freedom to be, where it doesn’t matter if those you love are true to you or your way as long as they’re true to themselves.