One New Year’s day a father takes his two young boys out to a frozen lake. His intention is to teach them to shoot – share a ‘manly’ endeavour with them. Things do not go as he planned however. The reason? Both boys are terrified of him and his habitual abuse of them.
The boys’ mother, Evelina, worries when the boys are late home. When their father does finally return them, the youngest, six year old boy has a badly bruised face. The older boy, ten year old Jesse, is distraught, fearful, and traumatized.
A woman takes her dog out for a walk at the same lake. She is never seen again. This woman’s husband never gets over the loss of her.
The policeman who looks into the disappearance of the woman has suspicions, but it is a long time before he knows for certain what happened that New Year’s Day. He becomes good friends with the woman’s husband and her dog. Also, he becomes a huge part of the lives of Evelina and her two young boys.
The setting, a small town in the Pacific Northwest near the Canadian border is vividly portrayed. The characters leap from the pages they are so richly drawn. A captivating story told from multiple points of view.
This is a slow-burn literary mystery about secrets that fester over years. How abuse of a child can have far-reaching repercussions to many people. How damage can manifest itself over time.
The search for happiness when sadness prevails. At times the novel’s tone is overwhelmingly bleak despite the beautifully written prose.
Life, love, death and regret. Guilt, grief, and blame. Chilling, haunting, literary fiction with richly developed characters. A novel that will remain in my memory for some time…
This review was written voluntarily and my rating was in no way influenced by the fact that I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel from Penguin Random House Canada via NetGalley. This title is from my extensive NetGalley backlist.
Publication date: September 22, 2020
Publisher: Penguin Random House Canada
ISBN: 9780735235847 ASIN: B07SRQCH4F – 272 pages
MARJORIE CELONA’s (they/them) debut novel, Y, won France’s Grand Prix Littéraire de l’Héroïne and was nominated for the 2012 Scotiabank Giller Prize. A graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, Marjorie’s work has appeared in The O. Henry Prize Stories, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, The Southern Review, Harvard Review, The Sunday Times, and elsewhere. Born and raised on Vancouver Island, they teach in the MFA Program at the University of Oregon.
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