In the July 15, 2024 issue of The New Yorker I read this blurb in their "Briefly Noted" section (soft paywall). That sounded right up my alley. I had a four-day cruise coming up, so I ordered it from Amazon, which was a big mistake because the book showed up a few days before my cruise. I compounded that mistake by just taking a "peek at the first few pages" as soon as I took the book out of its box.
To say the story grabs you from the very first paragraph is an understatement. My "quick peek" quickly turned into the first 60 pages, and I had missed a scheduled call because of it. I cursed, put the book down, and went downstairs to my office. And that night, I came back to it, and had to force myself to put it down two hours later. I'm a slow reader, but it was clear this book wasn't going to be my "cruise book." Turns out it was my wife's cruise book, because I finished it much more quickly than i had anticipated.
The story takes place over a span of three decades with the writer deftly taking you back and forth. It is told from the perspective of several of the characters, all of whom were beautifully developed, and it tell the story of a kid gone missing at a summer camp in the Adirondacks in the mid 1970s. But the mystery that unfolds really began more than a decade before. I'm not going to say anything more (and everything I've said here is pretty much disclosed in the jacket cover and the first two quick chapters), but the story and the secrets revealed are worth the read.
The writing is beautiful. Easily the best novel I've read in the past 2 or 3 years. I've already got my second novel from Liz Moore (this time from the library), and I pray its half as good as this one.
by golfpinotnut