First published 2022
The residents of a Brooklyn neighborhood find their lives shaped by the cemetery at its heart. Ferrell follows multiple characters whose stories weave together through shared geography and circumstance. An elderly woman tends graves that hold decades of community memory. A young father struggles with loss while raising his children in the shadow of headstones. Teenagers discover first love among the weathered monuments. A groundskeeper witnesses the daily rituals of grief and remembrance that play out across the burial grounds. As seasons change, these characters navigate the weight of the past and the pull of the future. Their individual struggles with family, identity, and belonging create a larger portrait of urban life. The cemetery serves as both literal and symbolic center, a place where the living confront what they carry and what they must release.
Genres: literary-fiction, family-life, contemporary, urban
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, slice-of-life
Setting: Brooklyn, Riverview Cemetery
Period: 21st-century
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