All the Things We Leave Behind
-
-
4.7 • 3 Ratings
-
-
- $11.99
-
- $11.99
Publisher Description
Finalist, New Brunswick Book Award for Fiction
A novel of absence and adolescence by the author of the award-winning The Town That Drowned.
It's 1977. Seventeen-year-old Violet is left behind by her parents to manage their busy roadside antique stand for the summer. Her restless older brother, Bliss, has disappeared, leaving home without warning, and her parents are off searching for clues. Violet is haunted by her brother's absence while trying to cope with her new responsibilities. Between visiting a local hermit, who makes twig furniture for the shop, and finding a way to land the contents of the mysterious Vaughan estate, Violet acts out with her summer boyfriend, Dean, and wonders about the mysterious boneyard. But what really keeps her up at night are thoughts of Bliss's departure and the white deer, which only she has seen.
All the Things We Leave Behind is about remembrance and attachment, about what we collect and what we leave behind. In this highly affecting novel, Nason explores the permeability of memory and the sometimes confusing bonds of human emotion.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Nason's second novel returns to the same part of small-town New Brunswick where she set her debut, The Town That Drowned, which won the Commonwealth Book Prize. It's summer 1977, and 17-year-old Violet is holding down the fort at the family antiques business, the Purple Barn, while her parents are away. The barn is about to acquire the haul of a lifetime: the rich Vaughan family, who abandoned their cottage after one of their children drowned there, prepare to sell all of its contents. Officially on a road trip, Violet's parents are actually looking for places where Violet's missing older brother, Bliss, might have been seen. After high school graduation he took off, leaving a note that said "Gone exploring." But Violet is haunted by visions of a white deer in the forest and fears that Bliss set off on a journey that was no ordinary road trip. The story is not innovative in structure, plot, or language. The characters are on the flimsy side, with the teenagers coming across as oddly middle-aged. Nevertheless, it's a diverting read with a strongly evoked sense of place, and Nason handles grief with sensitivity and poise.
