by Tara Conklin
First published 2024
Darcy Clipper comes back to Murbridge, Massachusetts at nearly thirty when her life takes a sharp turn for the worse. She expects her hometown to offer refuge where she can lick her wounds in peace. Instead, she finds a community that has shifted in her absence. Darcy wants to hide in her childhood bedroom eating canned food and nursing her grievances. But the town's online message board draws her in with posts about surplus corn, dog waste disputes, and municipal meetings about sludge removal. The anonymous internet postings connect her to neighbors she barely knew existed. As Darcy engages with Murbridge both online and face to face, she must wrestle with basic questions about belonging. What can she reasonably expect from her community? What does she owe them in return? Her isolation slowly gives way to unexpected connections that force her to reconsider what home really means.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, family-life, contemporary
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Murbridge, Massachusetts
Period: 21st-century
272 pages · Paperback · Mariner Books