Narrator Sophie Amoss excels in portraying Libby, a 15-year-old girl left to deal with the consequences after her mother rashly ejects her 12-year-old sister, Ellen, from the family car on a rural road five miles from home. When Ellen attempts to hitch a ride home, a disastrous event occurs that reverberates throughout Libby’s family. Amoss capitalizes on the story’s evocative language, setting, and strong characters. She has a special ability to provide the large cast with well-differentiated voices. The siblings are given youthful voices that make their worries apparent as they deal with men who may or may not have their best interests at heart. This is an atmospheric and moody coming-of-age story that looks at the results of one unfortunate act and its ensuing costs. E.J.F. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine
A haunting, suspenseful literary debut that combines a classic coming of age story with a portrait of a fractured American family dealing with the fallout of one summer evening gone terribly wrong.
“The night we left Ellen on the road, we drove up the mountain in silence.”
It is the early 1980s and fifteen-year-old Libby is obsessed with The Field Guide to the Trees of North America, a gift her Irish immigrant father gave her before he died. She finds solace in “The Kingdom,” a stand of red oak and thick mountain laurel near her home in suburban Pennsylvania, where she can escape from her large and unruly family and share menthol cigarettes and lukewarm beers with her best friend.
One night, while driving home, Libby's mother, exhausted and overwhelmed with the fighting in the backseat, pulls over and orders Libby's little sister Ellen to walk home. What none of this family knows as they drive off leaving a twelve-year-old girl on the side of the road five miles from home with darkness closing in, is what will happen next.
A Crooked Tree is a surprising, indelible novel, both a poignant portrayal of an unmoored childhood giving way to adolescence, and a gripping tale about the unexpected reverberations of one rash act.
A haunting, suspenseful literary debut that combines a classic coming of age story with a portrait of a fractured American family dealing with the fallout of one summer evening gone terribly wrong.
“The night we left Ellen on the road, we drove up the mountain in silence.”
It is the early 1980s and fifteen-year-old Libby is obsessed with The Field Guide to the Trees of North America, a gift her Irish immigrant father gave her before he died. She finds solace in “The Kingdom,” a stand of red oak and thick mountain laurel near her home in suburban Pennsylvania, where she can escape from her large and unruly family and share menthol cigarettes and lukewarm beers with her best friend.
One night, while driving home, Libby's mother, exhausted and overwhelmed with the fighting in the backseat, pulls over and orders Libby's little sister Ellen to walk home. What none of this family knows as they drive off leaving a twelve-year-old girl on the side of the road five miles from home with darkness closing in, is what will happen next.
A Crooked Tree is a surprising, indelible novel, both a poignant portrayal of an unmoored childhood giving way to adolescence, and a gripping tale about the unexpected reverberations of one rash act.
Editorial Reviews
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940177473239 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins |
| Publication date: | 01/05/2021 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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