The Road to Dalton
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4.0 • 8 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR
From debut author Shannon Bowring comes a novel of small town America that Pulitzer-winner Richard Russo calls, “measured, wise, and beautiful.”
In most small towns, the private is also public. In the town of Dalton, one local makes an unthinkable decision that leaves the community reeling. In the aftermath, their problems, both small and large, reveal a deeper understanding of the lives of their neighbors, and remind us all that no one is exactly who we think they are.
It’s 1990. In Dalton, Maine, life goes on. Rose goes to work at the diner every day, her bruises hidden from both the customers and her two young boys. At a table she waits, Dr. Richard Haskell looks back on the one choice that’s charted his entire life, before his thoughts wander back to his wife, Trudy, and her best friend.
Trudy and Bev have been friends for longer than they can count, and something more than lovers to each other for some time now—a fact both accepted and ignored by their husbands. Across town, new mother Bridget lives with her high school sweetheart Nate, and is struggling with postpartum after a traumatic birth. And nearer still is teenager Greg, trying to define the complicated feelings he has about himself and his two close friends.
The Road to Dalton offers valuable understandings of what it means to be alive in the world—of pain and joy, conflict and love, and the endurance that comes from living.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bowring captures in her compassionate debut the rhythms of life in small-town Maine. It's 1990 in Dalton, where the close-knit cast faces a series of problems. Rose Douglas, a waitress at the local diner, sees her doctor, Richard Haskell, after her fiancé assaults her, and blames herself for the abuse. Richard and his wife, Trudy, director of the Dalton library, have a companionable but loveless marriage; Trudy is fervently in love with Bev Theroux, whose husband, Bill, like Richard, is aware of their relationship but loath to separate from his wife. The Therouxs' son Nate and his wife Bridget have a new baby, Sophie, a happy event clouded by Bridget's postpartum depression. These and a handful of other characters, most prominently Sarah and Greg, who are struggling with the unique challenges of adolescence, form a colorful tapestry. By the end, an unexpected death touches everyone, a plot point that Bowring confidently steers away from melodrama, landing instead on poignant realism. Readers will want to take their time with this one.
