The Ones We Keep
A Novel
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4.6 • 7 Ratings
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- $16.99
Publisher Description
If she never knows which son has drowned, can Olivia convince herself that none of them have? By shielding herself from reality, can she continue to live in a world where all three boys are still alive?
The Ones We Keep is a deeply affecting exploration of grief, denial, and the fragile bonds that tether a family in the wake of unthinkable loss.
During a summer vacation at a quiet Vermont resort, Olivia Somerville returns from a solitary walk to learn that one of her three sons has drowned. But no one can tell her which one. In that suspended moment of dread and disbelief, Olivia makes a single choice—one that will fracture her family and echo through their lives for years to come.
Told with piercing insight and emotional precision, Bobbie Jean Huff’s debut is a literary psychological drama that delves into the hidden costs of survival, and the heart’s strange calculus when faced with unbearable grief.
Praise for The Ones We Keep:
"An elegantly written examination of our ability to control our memories and our grief for the sake of survival." ― Jamie Harrison, award-winning author of The Widow Nash and The Center of Everything
“Bobbie Jean Huff thinks us through the unthinkable with grace and unwavering confidence in this riveting story that is wrenching and tender in equal parts, and in the end so deeply satisfying." ― Tim Wynne-Jones, author of The Emperor of Any Place
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Huff debuts with the uneven story of a family's attempt to cope with the death of a child. A mother of three, Olivia Somerville goes on a solo hike during her family's Vermont lodge vacation in 1971, and on the trail she hears from strangers that a little boy from New Jersey has just drowned. She knows that it was one of her sons—either nine-year-old Brian, four-year-old Andrew, or toddler Rory, given that the only other children at the lodge are from Nebraska. Refusing to find out which son died, she heads back to Montclair, N.J., grabs a valuable painting and cash from her home, and leaves the family forever. She settles in North Port, Vt., where her son died (turns out it was Andrew), reclaims her maiden name, and detaches from her old life. Her husband, Harry, and the boys try to put their lives back together, reeling not only from Andrew's death but Olivia's disappearance. Huff follows the characters over the next three decades, culminating in a life-changing meeting. Huff is a fine prose stylist, but she doesn't make the central action of the book feel plausible, with Olivia's actions being particularly hard to believe. It's engrossing, but frustrating.
