First published 2010
Girlie, a teenager, escapes her unstable mother Stella's gin-soaked life for the stability of her aunt Tilly's home. But as Girlie settles in, she uncovers Tilly's own secrets and sorrows, and the family's tangled history threatens to pull them all under. In this poignant exploration of addiction and resilience, Jamison illuminates the ways we both hurt and heal each other.
Genres: literary-fiction, addiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
288 pages · Hardcover · Free Press
Content warnings: addiction, alcohol-abuse