City Libraries, City of Gold Coast

What comes after, JoAnne Tompkins

eng

no index present

fiction

What comes after

JoAnne Tompkins

After the shocking death of two teenage boys tears apart a community in the Pacific Northwest, an unfamiliar pregnant girl emerges out of the woods and into the lives of those same boys' families. Why the boys died and what their tragedy has to do with this girl are the propulsive mysteries at the center of JoAnne Tompkins's story. But just as urgent is the question of how the families will move forward. What comes after grief? What does forgiveness look like? In misty, coastal Washington, Isaac's teenage son, Daniel, is gone, leaving Isaac alone in a rambling Victorian home, shocked and grieving. The friendships and faith that once nourished him are flickering. Next door, Lorrie, a working single mother, struggles with the final act committed by her own teenage son. The two parents are separated by only a silvery stretch of trees, but emotionally they are stranded, isolated by their great losses â until they meet Evangeline. Fiery in hair and spirit, sixteen, pregnant, and alone, Evangeline's unexplained arrival changes everything. At first it feels like a blessing, and a bridge across a divide. But the girl is clearly hiding something about her connection to the boys and their deaths. Soon all three characters are forced to examine what really happened in their overlapping pasts, and what it all possibly means for a shared future

adult