Matty Grover has been running all her life. Something drives her to search for an understanding of her family's past, pushing her to define her future. She is searching for love, or something like it - but love has no synonym. Her travels take her from her small hometown in rural Virginia, where the racial tensions of the 1960s are rising to the surface, to the adobe homes, scorpions, and flash floods of the Arizona desert.
Alison Moore's debut novel examines the human struggle between the need to belong and the longing to escape. With grace, clairty, and a keen eye for emotional detail, she captures the turmoil of a young woman coming of age. Moore's characters display grace under pressure, their relationships strained by the silences that result from grief and stoicism; they reveal the fagility of the human heart and the strength of human will.
"Alison Moore has uncommon insights into the lives we lead as wives and husbands and lovers, as children and parents, and the moments of grace that make us believe we are not ordinary but senselessly lucky and blessed."
- Barbara Kingsolver
"Striking imagery, passages of dense, passionate writing and scenes of gut-wrenching emotion.... A beautifully written novel that will only enhance Moore's reputation." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A first novelist's sure-footed affecting examination of abandonment's scars." - Kirkus Reviews |
