Cassie

A father dies alone on a bench that faces the wrong way.

Thirty-four years earlier, he skips the steps that squeak and leaves for work before his daughter wakes. Cassie opens her eyes to an empty room in an empty house. She skips the same steps; she has already learned how to make herself small enough not to cost anything.

As the decades unfold, their paths diverge. While her father punches every offered hand away, retreating further into bitterness, Cassie builds a life by collecting small graces: the neighbor who teaches her to brush her hair, the best friend who plans their San Francisco escape, the partner who teaches her to laugh, and the children she waves at until they are out of sight.

Told in alternating perspectives across a thirty-four-year countdown to his death, their stories show one life contracting as the other expands. As Cassie fights to forge her own future, she must confront the ultimate questions: What does it cost when we refuse to change? And what separates the person who breaks the cycle of inherited trauma from the one who becomes it?

Perfect for readers of Elizabeth Strout and Barbara Kingsolver, this gritty, devastating, and joyous debut is a profound exploration of love, survival, and the price of choosing something new.