by Carrie Arcos
First published 2018
Zara and her mother Nadja shop at their usual farmers' market in Rhode Island when a bomb tears through the crowd. Zara survives with PTSD. Nadja falls into a coma. Their relationship was already fractured. Nadja never spoke about her past in Bosnia. She dismissed Zara's passion for photography. Zara never learned how to bridge the gap between them. Now she faces the possibility that she never will. Questions flood her mind about faith, family history, and her future. At the hospital, she meets Joseph, whose grandmother is also a patient. His thoughts on religion and philosophy help Zara work through her confusion. The story moves between present-day Providence and Nadja's childhood in Bosnia during the 1990s war. Through these alternating timelines, Zara discovers how her mother's traumatic past shaped their troubled relationship. The narrative reveals how violence echoes across generations and how understanding can emerge from tragedy.
Genres: literary-fiction, historical-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, found-family
Setting: Bosnia, Providence, Rhode Island
Period: 1990s, present-day
387 pages · Hardcover · Philomel Books
Content warnings: anxiety, depression, mental-illness