Scavengers
A Novel
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- $199.00
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- $199.00
Descripción editorial
“Charming, propulsive, and emotionally gripping.” —People
“[A] riveting novel of madcap adventure.” —The New Yorker
A rollicking debut novel about a cautious daughter and her eccentric, estranged mother venturing west in search of buried treasure—and a way back to each other—before they run out of patience, money, and options
After being fired for taking an uncharacteristic risk at her commodities trading job, Bea Macon sublets her New York apartment and books a one-way ticket to stay with her mother, Christy, a free spirit who has been living in Salt Lake City on Bea's dime.
Usually the responsible one, Bea isn't about to admit exactly why she's suddenly decided to visit, but she isn’t the only one keeping secrets: Christy has a man. She has a map. She has . . . a username on a forum devoted to unearthing $1 million in buried treasure that an antiquities dealer claims to have hidden somewhere in the western U.S.?
Bea is convinced this is just another one of her mother’s wild larks, an elaborate way to refuse, as she has for Bea’s entire life, to finally grow up. But Christy believes she’s onto something—and she’s arranged a rendezvous in a rural town called Mercy with the guy she’s been obsessively trading theories with online to prove it. Out in the desert that one woman believes to be a promised land, the other a wasteland, they find themselves barreling toward a more high-stakes, transformative escapade than either of them could have imagined.
Populated with unforgettable characters and set against one of the world’s most oddly enrapturing landscapes, Scavengers is a funny and heartbreaking novel about old injuries, new beginnings, and the lengths to which we’ll go to find, escape, and reinvent ourselves.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A mother and daughter search for a buried treasure in Boland's rollicking debut. When Bea is fired from her New York City finance job and her life implodes, she heads to Utah where her wayward mother, Christy, has been obsessively tracking an online forum devoted to $1 million worth of antiques left in the desert by a late poet. Christy has created detailed maps to help her find the bounty, and when Bea arrives, unemployed and with no good prospects, she's drawn into her mother's dubious mission. They set out for a rural town called Mercy, where they stay in a cabin and meet Christy's online boyfriend Bob, who also believes in the treasure. Then Christy and Bea get lost in the mountains while searching for the treasure, and they're saved by outdoorsmen Tag and Hank, who join forces with them. Bea takes a liking to Tag, and their relationship develops over the course of the novel. Things take a sinister turn, though, when Bob vanishes. Boland blends genuine thrills with an affecting story of a mother and daughter's restored relationship, and the narrative builds to a surprise ending. Readers will be delighted.
