FICTRE
This is a stunning and moving novel about a family's devastating loss and its aftermath. One summer morning Tom Dolan goes into the bedroom of his sleeping 15-year old daughter, shoots her in the head, and then shoots himself. His estranged wife Margaret, and younger daughter, Justine, respond with stupefied disbelief. The oldest daughter, Anastasia, is the only one who struggles above her own grief and shock to find the truth at the heart of the tragedy.
The author is masterful at depicting small-town life, familiar neighborhoods, the rhymes of family interplay. Especially genuine are the small ordinary words and actions that form the backdrop of earth-shattering events-cheerleaders' shouts ringing through a cemetery where the loved one's grave is newly dug. The author does not tie up all the loose ends or bestow redemption and resolution upon her characters. She leaves them damaged, but functioning and whole.
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