First published 2017
Wade drives his family to a mountain clearing on a sweltering August afternoon to gather birch wood. His wife Jenny wields the hatchet to trim branches from the logs. Their daughters June and May, nine and six years old, sip lemonade and brush away horseflies while they argue and sing fragments of songs. The day unfolds like countless others until Jenny commits an act of shocking violence that destroys everything. The family splinters apart in the aftermath. Through shifting viewpoints, the story reveals how this single moment of brutality ripples through each survivor's life. Wade struggles with memory and understanding. The children carry wounds that reshape their futures. Jenny's motivations remain locked away, a puzzle that haunts everyone left behind. Love and trauma interweave as each character grapples with what happened in that clearing and what it means for the rest of their lives.
Genres: literary-fiction, contemporary, psychological-thriller, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Idaho, Mountain Clearing
Period: August
320 pages · Hardcover · Random House
Content warnings: violence