Description
''Lucid and assured'' The New Yorker, Best Books of 2023
''For fans of Celeste Ng and Ann Patchett, this quietly beautiful book will break, then mend, your heart'' Amazon, The Best Books of 2023
WINNER OF THE 2023 BARNES & NOBLE DISCOVER PRIZE
WINNER OF THE 2024 ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL FOR EXCELLENCE IN FICTION
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One family's deepest pain. Another family's darkest secret.
On a hot day in 1960s Maine, six-year-old Joe watches his little sister Ruthie, sitting on her favourite rock at the edge of the blueberry fields, while their family, Mi'kmaq people from Nova Scotia, pick fruit. That afternoon, Ruthie vanishes without a trace. As the last person to see her, Joe will be forever haunted by grief, guilt, and the agony of imagining how his life could have been.
In an affluent suburb nearby, Norma is growing up as the only child of unhappy parents. She is smart, precocious, and bursting with