by Hannah Tinti
First published 2017
Samuel Hawley settles in Olympus, Massachusetts, hoping to give his teenage daughter Loo the stable childhood he never provided. For years they lived as drifters, moving between motels while Hawley stayed one step ahead of his past. Now he works as a fisherman in his late wife's hometown while Loo navigates high school social dynamics as an outsider. Loo grows increasingly curious about her deceased mother and begins digging into family history. Her investigation reveals disturbing secrets about both parents' lives before her birth. Hawley's body tells part of the story through twelve distinct scars, each marking a bullet wound from his criminal years. Every scar represents a different location, a narrow escape, moments when love appeared and vanished. As Loo pieces together the truth about her family's dark history, the dangers Hawley tried to leave behind catch up with them. Father and daughter must confront the violence that shaped their lives and face the consequences together.
Genres: literary-fiction, mystery, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, suspenseful
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Olympus, Massachusetts
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
543 pages · Paperback · Random House Large Print
Content warnings: violence