First published 2014
Marie James joins her friends to hunt for survivors in the wreckage after a tornado flattens a town near Fayetteville, Arkansas. The disaster changes everything she thought she knew about her future. Across ten connected stories, people face forces they cannot control. Philipa writes to her husband Charles about taking charge of her destiny, telling him that only living well and dying without pain matter. Young Eli Naylor loses his parents in a flood but discovers that tragedy can lead to unexpected good when he finds a new life in a place he never imagined. These characters fight against the truth of their own mortality. They survive because they refuse to give up. Gilchrist shows how ordinary people find strength when everything falls apart. Her stories balance clear-eyed hope with sharp humor as her characters learn that surviving sometimes means accepting what you cannot change.
Genres: fiction, short-stories, literary-fiction, contemporary
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, survival
Setting: Fayetteville, Arkansas
Period: contemporary
246 pages · Hardcover · Algonquin Books