First published 2018
Marie Fermoyle struggles to raise three children alone in 1960s Atkinson, Vermont. Her ex-husband drinks away his responsibilities while poverty closes in around the family. When smooth-talking con man Omar Duvall arrives in town, Marie sees a chance at companionship and security. Her seventeen-year-old daughter Alice becomes entangled with the local priest. Sixteen-year-old Norm burns with anger at their circumstances. Twelve-year-old Benjy carries a dangerous secret about Duvall that threatens to destroy his mother's fragile hopes. Meanwhile, in another Vermont town, laborer Aubrey Wallace and magnetic Dotty Johnson vanish on the same day a toddler disappears from her home. For five years, the unlikely trio lives on the run, bound together by fear and circumstance. When Dotty finally breaks free and partners with an ex-convict, their carefully constructed world begins to crumble, setting in motion events that will determine the child's fate.
Genres: literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Atkinson, Vermont
Period: 1960s
1258 pages · Kindle Edition · Open Road Media
Content warnings: substance-abuse