Synopses & Reviews
In those days, there were no words to describe the nature of my mother's tales. No diagnosis for her tendency toward fiction. No names for women who make accidents happen to their children. No terms for imaginary heroes. And so we listened to my mother's stories in silence and tried to believe.
Indie Brown is a woman haunted by a childhood he's rather forget. As an adult, Indie has moved far away from her parents and created a new life with her longtime companion, Peter, a sensitive an steadfast partner. But a late-night phone call from her younger sister sends her reeling back into the chaos of her troubled family. In this luminous and terrifying novel, Indie is forced to confront the nightmares of her childhood and reevaluate her relationships with her mother, her sister, and Peter.
Synopsis
In this mesmerizing novel, acclaimed author T. Greenwood draws readers into the fascinating and frightening world of Munchausen syndrome by proxy--and into one woman's search for healing.
When Indie Brown was four years old, she was struck by lightning. In the oft-told version of the story, Indie's life was heroically saved by her mother. But Indie's own recollection of the event, while hazy, is very different.
Most of Indie's childhood memories are like this--tinged with vague, unsettling images and suspicions. Her mother, Judy, fussed over her pretty youngest daughter, Lily, as much as she ignored Indie. That neglect, coupled with the death of her beloved older brother, is the reason Indie now lives far away in rural Maine. It's why her relationship with Lily is filled with tension, and why she dreads the thought of flying back to Arizona. But she has no choice. Judy is gravely ill, and Lily, struggling with a challenge of her own, needs her help.
In Arizona, faced with Lily's hysteria and their mother's instability, Indie slowly begins to confront the truth about her half-remembered past and the legacy that still haunts her family. And as she revisits her childhood, with its nightmares and lost innocence, she finds she must reevaluate the choices of her adulthood--including her most precious relationships.
"Lush, evocative." --The New York Times Book Review
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