First published 1998
In the quiet mill town of Shirley Falls, shy high schooler Amy falls for her math teacher, a forbidden passion that shakes her mother Isabelle's carefully ordered life. When their taboo affair is discovered, Isabelle's outrage and shame drives a wedge between the two women. As they eat, sleep, and work side-by-side, mother and daughter remain emotionally distant, their private pain entwined with the larger dramas of the town - a teenage pregnancy, a UFO sighting, a missing child. Through it all, Elizabeth Strout tenderly reveals the deep love underlying Isabelle and Amy's troubled bond.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, forbidden-romance
Setting: New England, Shirley Falls
416 pages · Paperback · Simon & Schuster Ltd