Synopses & Reviews
From the author of the celebrated
Sleep Toward Heaven comes a novel of love and secrets.
To their neighbors in suburban Holt, New York, the Winters family has it all: a grand home, a trio of radiant daughters, and a sense that they are safe in their affluent corner of America. But when five-year-old Ellie disappears, the fault lines within the Winters family are exposed. Joseph, once a successful businessman, succumbs to his demons. Isabelle retreats into memories of her debutante days in Savannah, Georgia. And Ellie's bereft sisters grow apart: Madeline reluctantly stays home, while Caroline runs away.
Fifteen years later, Caroline, now a New Orleans cocktail waitress, sees a photograph of a woman in People Magazine. Convinced that it is Ellie all grown up, Caroline embarks on a search for her missing sister, armed with Xerox copies of the photograph, an amateur detective guide, and a cooler of Dixie beer. As Caroline travels through the New Mexico desert, the mountains of Colorado, and the smoky underworld of Montana, she devotes herself to salvaging her broken family.
With dark humor and gorgeous prose, Amanda Eyre Ward brings us a spellbinding novel about the stories we are given, and the stories we embrace.
Review
"Ward tracks a young woman's search for her missing sister...with economy and compassion in this believable and moving tale....An emotional journey as much as a physical one [that] gives Ward a perfect vehicle to explore how belief can be as important as truth." Publishers Weekly
Review
"The author plays a smooth game, not showing her hand until the absolute right time, just when you were about to give up on a seemingly hopeless case. A voyage of discovery cloaked in suburban ennui: engaging and hard to let go." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Ward's smart, sharp second novel is a read-in-one-sitting treat, a delightfully satisfying blend of hip humor and poignant longing, and an unsentimental yet inspiring testimony to the power of hope over reason and love over loss." Booklist
Review
"Ward shines here with the same humor and brilliance she showed her first novel, Sleep Toward Heaven, setting vivid descriptions of women's interior lives within a haunting mystery, all told in the clear, no-nonsense prose that has won her such acclaim." Andrew Sean Greer, author of The Confessions of Max Tivoli
About the Author
Amanda Eyre Ward is the author of the critically acclaimed and award-winning novel Sleep Toward Heaven. The New York Post named Ward one of five Writers to Watch in 2003. She grew up in Rye, New York, and lives in Cataumet, Massachusetts, with her husband and son. Visit her site at www.amandaward.com.