Masterfully written and beautifully told, Heather Gudenkauf's debut is a stunning novel of family devotion, honesty and regret that will linger long after the last page is turned.
It happens quietly one August morning. As dawn's shimmering light drenches the humid Iowa air, two families awaken to find their little girls have gone missing in the night.
Seven-year-old Calli Clark is sweet, gentle, a dreamer who suffers from selective mutism...

A five-decade saga tracing the impact of an act of infidelity on the parents and children of two Southern California families traces their shared summers in Virginia and the disillusionment that shapes their lasting bond.

"A story of family secrets, broken relationships, and a love strong enough to span a nation"--Provided by publisher.

Astonished to see the mother who abandoned him in childhood throwing rocks at a presidential candidate, a bored college professor struggles to reconcile the media depictions of his mother with his memories and decides to draw her out by penning a tell-all biography.

Enduring a difficult existence in the woods with her younger sister and the mentally ill mother who abducted them, Carey is found by her father and thrust into a new world that is overshadowed by a secret about her sister's silence.

After Richard Walker dies, his estranged family arrives at his estate for their inheritance, while long-dead former residents bound to the house observe the family and reminisce about their past lives--until the two worlds collide.

Growing up in hardscrabble Kentucky in the 1920s, with their mother dead and their stepfather an ever-present threat, Bertie Fischer and her older sister Mabel have no one but each other--with perhaps a sweetheart for Bertie waiting in the wings. But on the day that Bertie receives her eighth-grade diploma, good intentions go terribly wrong. A choice made in desperate haste sets off a chain of misunderstandings that will divide the sisters and reverberate...

Octavia is excited to study the plants and animals of Faloiv until she witnesses one of the planet's indigenous people being attacked and begins to question her own family history and the scientists she has always admired.

As her mind slips deeper into delirium, Tress tries to keep it together long enough to finally find out what happened to her parents, while her cousin prepares to exact revenge on all who have done him wrong – including Tress.

When Ruby's divorced father shows up unexpectedly on her sixteenth birthday, the week that follows is full of confusing surprises, including discovering that her best friend has been keeping secrets from her, her mother has not been truthful about the past, and life is often complicated.