by Nathan Hill
First published 2016
Samuel Andresen-Anderson has lived without his mother Faye for decades. She walked out when he was young and never returned. Then in 2011, she commits a bizarre crime that dominates news cycles and splits the country along political lines. The media brands her a radical leftist with a dark history. Samuel remembers only an unremarkable woman who married her teenage boyfriend. Now Faye faces serious criminal charges and needs Samuel's help. To defend her, he must dig into family secrets buried across generations. His investigation leads him back to Norway and the legend of the Nix. Samuel discovers truths about his mother that reshape everything he believed. The journey forces him to examine his own failures, including a romance he destroyed. As he uncovers what really happened to Faye, Samuel learns that understanding his mother means understanding himself.
Genres: american-fiction, contemporary, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: unreliable-narrator
Setting: Norway
Period: 2011
625 pages · Hardcover · Knopf