Second Nature

From the award-winning author of Natural Beauty comes a fierce, beautiful novel of survival, faith, and love—following a young boy raised in an isolated matriarchal society

Bodie is a shy, sweet, curious boy who grows up in the Veil, cared for by his many mothers and devoted to his female God. He spends his days playing in the forest and fulfilling his various responsibilities, which include educating the younger children on the history of their world. Increasingly, he begins to love his closest friend, a boy named Aster, in a way he doesn't understand but knows is infeasible in the Veil.

When Bodie is told that he will undergo fulfillment—a mysterious act which signals his conversion to adulthood—he grows apprehensive. Soon, everything in his world shifts, and a darker truth begins to emerge. To save himself, and those he loves most, he may have to do the one thing that is truly forbidden. . . .