The Golden Hour

by T. Greenwood

  T. GREENWOOD is the author of eleven critically acclaimed novels. She has received numerous grants for her writing, including a National Endowment for the Arts Literature Fellowship and a grant from the Maryland State Arts Council. She lives with her family in San Diego, California, where she teaches creative writing, studies photography, and continues to write. Her Web site is www.tgreenwood.com.

  Don’t miss any of T. Greenwood’s critically acclaimed novels!

  WHERE I LOST HER

  Eight years ago, Tess and Jake were considered a power couple of the New York publishing world—happy, in love, planning a family. Failed fertility treatments and a heartbreaking attempt at adoption have fractured their marriage and left Tess edgy and adrift. A visit to friends in rural Vermont throws Tess’s world into further chaos when she sees a young, half-dressed child in the middle of the road, who then runs into the woods like a frightened deer.

  The entire town begins searching for the little girl. But there are no sightings, no other witnesses, no reports of missing children. As local police and Jake point out, Tess’s imagination has played her false before. And yet Tess is compelled to keep looking, not only to save the little girl she can’t forget but to salvage her broken heart as well.

  Blending her trademark lyrical prose with a superbly crafted and suspenseful narrative, Where I Lost Her is a gripping, haunting novel from a remarkable storyteller.

  “Where I Lost Her is a spellbinding tale about finding what we most want in the places we least expect. A touching story of one woman’s loss and heartache, coupled with the electrifying search for a young girl in the remote woods of rural Vermont, the novel features the eloquent prose of T. Greenwood, indelible characters and an edge-of-your-seat mystery. I loved everything about Where I Lost Her.”

  —Mary Kubica, Bestselling author of The Good Girl and Pretty Baby

  “Greenwood crafts believable relationships with searing, heartbreaking realism. Showcasing the power of friendship and of hope, this mysterious, suspenseful exploration of the human psyche will keep readers turning pages and losing sleep.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Greenwood’s fascinating tenth novel is sure to have readers riveted, as a distraught Tess struggles to learn the truth.”

  —Library Journal

  “Intricate drama unfolds as the author provides, in the first-person, Tess’s back story of her time in Guatemala relating her fears and anguish. For readers who love the in-depth description of locations, Where I Lost Her will not disappoint.”

  —The New York Journal of Books

  “This intoxicating blend of women’s fiction and psychological thriller is the perfect platform for Greenwood’s exquisite prose and masterful storytelling.”

  —RT Book Reviews, 4.5 Stars Top Pick

  THE FOREVER BRIDGE

  With eloquent prose and lush imagery, T. Greenwood creates a heartfelt story of reconciliation and forgiveness, and of the deep, often unexpected connections that can bring you home.

  Sylvie can hardly bear to remember how normal her family was two years ago. All of that changed on the night an oncoming vehicle forced their car over the edge of a covered bridge into the river. With horrible swiftness, Sylvie’s young son was gone, her husband lost his legs, and she was left with shattering blame and grief.

  Eleven-year-old Ruby misses her little brother, too. But she also misses the mother who has become a recluse in their old home while Ruby and her dad try to piece themselves back together. Amid all the uncertainty in her life, Ruby becomes obsessed with bridges, drawing inspiration from the strength and purpose that underlies their grace. During one momentous week, as Hurricane Irene bears down on their small Vermont town and a pregnant teenager with a devastating secret gradually draws Sylvie back into the world, Ruby and her mother will have a chance to span the gap between them again.

  “Set against the backdrop of an impending hurricane, a mother, her young daughter, and a pregnant teen find themselves caught up in their own emotional storms fraught with loss, guilt, and shards of fractured families. Greenwood deftly captures the complicated and subtly volatile situations of these three women at three very different stages of their lives with sensitivity and a stark honesty that makes for a compelling read.”

  —Tawni O’Dell, New York Times Bestselling author of Back Roads

  “In The Forever Bridge, about a family reeling from the death of a child as they face Hurricane Irene, T. Greenwood adds another enticing, lyrical novel to her body of work. Greenwood’s facility in bringing fictional Quimby, Vermont to life—which she has now done in 7 of her novels—is reminiscent of Faulkner’s evocation of Yoknapatawpha County; a created place so thoughtfully rendered that it lives and breathes even when the book is closed.”

  —Miranda Beverly-Whittemore, New York Times bestselling author of Bittersweet

  “I loved The Forever Bridge from its first beautiful sentence to its breathtaking final one. T. Greenwood delves into the pain of grief, the complex navigations of family in the throes of loss, and brings the reader to a place of hope and, yes, even joy.”

  —Ann Hood, author of The Knitting Circle and An Italian Wife

  “Amidst a body of extraordinary work, T. Greenwood’s latest is her best. Set against the violent backdrop of Hurricane Irene, The Forever Bridge tells the affecting, evocative tale of three damaged women all fighting to find a road home. Written with acute humanity and depth, the beauty of the novel is in its complex story and, ultimately, its heartbreaking and redemptive end. Or, in Greenwood’s own words: ‘That something stolen has been returned to her. That something lost has been found.’ ”

  —Michelle Gable, author of A Paris Apartment

  “T. Greenwood’s The Forever Bridge is full of palpable emotion: both the pain of unbearable losses, and the indomitable human connections that somehow allow us to bear them. Essentially an excavation of the fragile bridges we build towards hope, this lyrical and poignant novel will appeal to fans of Caroline Leavitt’s Pictures of You and Jonathan Evison’s The Revised Fundamentals of Caregiving.”

  —Gina Frangello, author of A Life in Men

  BODIES OF WATER

  In 1960, Billie Valentine is a young housewife living in a sleepy Massachusetts suburb, treading water in a dull marriage and caring for two adopted daughters. Summers spent with the girls at their lakeside camp in Vermont are her one escape—from her husband’s demands, from days consumed by household drudgery, and from the nagging suspicion that life was supposed to hold something different.

  Then a new family moves in across the street. Ted and Eva Wilson have three children and a fourth on the way, and their arrival reignites long-buried feelings in Billie. The affair that follows offers a solace Billie has never known, until her secret is revealed and both families are wrenched apart in the tragic aftermath.

  Fifty years later, Ted and Eva’s son, Johnny, contacts an elderly but still spry Billie, entreating her to return east to meet with him. Once there, Billie finally learns the surprising truth about what was lost, and what still remains, of those joyful, momentous summers.

  In this deeply tender novel, T. Greenwood weaves deftly between the past and present to create a poignant and wonderfully moving story of friendship, the resonance of memories, and the love that keeps us afloat.

  “A complex and compelling portrait of the painful intricacies of love and loyalty. Book clubs will find much to discuss in T. Greenwood’s insightful story of two women caught between their hearts and their families.”

  —Eleanor Brown, New York Times bestselling author of The Weird Sisters

  “A wrenching look at what happens when two people fall in love in the wrong place at the wrong time . . . Beauty and tragedy at the same time, darkness then light—those are Greenwood hallmarks. She’s terrific with characters, with the multiple textures that make someone seem human on the page. She has some interesting things to say here about memory, and the ending is as moving as anything she’s written.�
��

  —The San Diego Union-Tribune

  “Bodies of Water is no ordinary love story, but a book of astonishing precision, lyrically told, raw in its honesty and gentle in its unfolding. Here is a complex tapestry of lives entwined, a testimony to the fact that a timeless sort of love does exist. T. Greenwood has rendered a compassionate story of people who are healed and destroyed by love, by alcoholism, by secrets and betrayal, and yet she offers us a certain shade of hope that soul mates can and do find each other—sometimes more than once in a lifetime. A luminous, fearless heart-wrenching story about the power of true love.”

  —Ilie Ruby, author of The Salt God’s Daughter

  “Greenwood’s [seventh] novel, a tale of love and loyalty, owes its success to the poetic prose, as well as the compelling chronology she employs . . . This compassionate, insightful look at hope and redemption is a richly textured portrait. This gem of a story is a good choice for those who enjoy family novels.”

  —Library Journal

  “T. Greenwood’s Bodies of Water is a lyrical novel about the inexplicable nature of love, and the power a forbidden affair has to transform one woman’s entire life. By turns beautiful and tragic, haunting and healing, I was captivated from the very first line. And Greenwood’s moving story of love and loss, hope and redemption has stayed with me, long after I turned the last page.”

  —Jillian Cantor, author of Margot

  BREATHING WATER

  Three years after leaving Lake Gormlaith, Vermont, Effie Greer is coming home. The unspoiled lake, surrounded by dense woods and patches of wild blueberries, is the place where she spent idyllic childhood summers at her grandparents’ cottage. And it’s where Effie’s tempestuous relationship with her college boyfriend, Max, culminated in a tragedy she can never forget.

  Effie had hoped to save Max from his troubled past, and in the process became his victim. Since then, she’s wandered from one city to another, living like a fugitive. But now Max is gone, and as Effie paints and restores the ramshackle cottage, she forms new bonds—with an old school friend, with her widowed grandmother, and with Devin, an artist and carpenter summering nearby. Slowly, she’s discovering a resilience and tenderness she didn’t know she possessed, and—buoyed by the lake’s cool, forgiving waters—she may even learn to save herself.

  Wrenching yet ultimately uplifting, here is a novel of survival, hope, and absolution, from a writer of extraordinary insight and depth.

  A poignant, clear-eyed first novel . . . filled with careful poetic description . . . the story is woven skillfully.”

  —The New York Times Book Review

  “A poignant debut . . . Greenwood sensitively and painstakingly unravels her protagonist’s self-loathing and replaces it with a graceful dignity.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “A vivid, somberly engaging first book.”

  —Larry McMurtry

  “An impressive first novel.”

  —Booklist

  “Breathing Water is startling and fresh . . . Greenwood’s novel is ripe with originality.”

  —The San Diego Union-Tribune

  GRACE

  T. Greenwood’s extraordinary novels deftly combine lyrical prose with heartrending subject matter. Now she explores one year in a family poised to implode, and the imperfect love that may be its only salvation.

  Every family photograph hides a story. Some are suffused with warmth and joy, others reflect the dull ache of disappointed dreams. For thirteen-year-old Trevor Kennedy, taking photos helps make sense of his fractured world. His father, Kurt, struggles to keep a business going while also caring for Trevor’s aging grandfather, whose hoarding has reached dangerous levels. Trevor’s mother, Elsbeth, all but ignores her son while doting on his five-year-old sister, Gracy, and pilfering useless drugstore items.

  Trevor knows he can count on little Gracy’s unconditional love and his art teacher’s encouragement. None of that compensates for the bullying he has endured at school for as long as he can remember. But where Trevor once silently tolerated the jabs and name-calling, now anger surges through him in ways he’s powerless to control.

  Only Crystal, a store clerk dealing with her own loss, sees the deep fissures in the Kennedy family—in the haunting photographs Trevor brings to be developed, and in the palpable distance between Elsbeth and her son. And as their lives become more intertwined, each will be pushed to the breaking point, with shattering, unforeseeable consequences.

  “Grace is a poetic, compelling story that glows in its subtle, yet searing examination of how we attempt to fill the potentially devastating fissures in our lives. Each character is masterfully drawn; each struggles in their own way to find peace amid tumultuous circumstance. With her always crisp imagery and fearless language, Greenwood doesn’t back down from the hard issues or the darker sides of human psyche, managing to create astounding empathy and a balanced view of each player along the way. The story expertly builds to a breath-taking climax, leaving the reader with a clear understanding of how sometimes, only a moment of grace can save us.”

  —Amy Hatvany, author of Best Kept Secret

  “Grace is at once heart breaking, thrilling and painfully beautiful. From the opening page, to the breathless conclusion, T. Greenwood again shows why she is one of our most gifted and lyrical storytellers.”

  —Jim Kokoris, author of The Pursuit of Other Interests

  “Grace is a masterpiece of small-town realism that is as harrowing as it is heartfelt.”

  —Jim Ruland, author of Big Lonesome

  “This novel will keep readers rapt until the very end . . . Shocking and honest, you’re likely to never forget this book.”

  —RT Book Reviews

  “Grace amazes. Ultimately so realistically human in its terror and beauty that it may haunt you for days after you finish it. T. Greenwood has another gem here. Greenwood’s mastery of character and her deep empathy for the human condition make you care what happens, especially in the book’s furious final 100 pages.”

  —The San Diego Union-Tribune

  “Exceptionally well-observed. Readers who enjoy insightful and sensitive family drama (Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin; Rosellen Brown’s Before and After) will appreciate discovering Greenwood.”

  —Library Journal

  NEARER THAN THE SKY

  In this mesmerizing novel, T. Greenwood draws readers into the fascinating and frightening world of Munchausen syndrome by proxy—and into one woman’s search for healing.

  When Indie Brown was four years old, she was struck by lightning. In the oft-told version of the story, Indie’s life was heroically saved by her mother. But Indie’s own recollection of the event, while hazy, is very different.

  Most of Indie’s childhood memories are like this—tinged with vague, unsettling images and suspicions. Her mother, Judy, fussed over her pretty youngest daughter, Lily, as much as she ignored Indie. That neglect, coupled with the death of her beloved older brother, is the reason Indie now lives far away in rural Maine. It’s why her relationship with Lily is filled with tension, and why she dreads the thought of flying back to Arizona. But she has no choice. Judy is gravely ill, and Lily, struggling with a challenge of her own, needs her help.

  In Arizona, faced with Lily’s hysteria and their mother’s instability, Indie slowly begins to confront the truth about her half-remembered past and the legacy that still haunts her family. And as she revisits her childhood, with its nightmares and lost innocence, she finds she must reevaluate the choices of her adulthood—including her most precious relationships.

  “Greenwood is an assured guide through this strange territory; she has a lush, evocative style.”

  —The New York Times Book Review

  “T. Greenwood writes with grace and compassion about loyalty and betrayal, love and redemption in this totally absorbing novel about daughters and mothers.”

  —Ursula Hegi, author of Stones from the River

  “A lyrical inv
estigation into the unreliability and elusiveness of memory centers Greenwood’s second novel . . . The kaleidoscopic heart of the story is rich with evocative details about its heroine’s inner life.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Doesn’t disappoint. A complicated story of love and abuse told with a directness and intensity that packs a lightning charge.”

  —Booklist

  “Nearer than the Sky is a remarkable portrait of resilience. With clarity and painful precision, T. Greenwood probes the dark history of Indie’s family.”

  —Rene Steinke, author of The Fires and Holy Skirts

  “Deft handling of a difficult and painful subject . . . compelling.”

  —Kirkus Reviews

  “Potent . . . Greenwood’s clear-eyed prose takes the stuff of tabloid television and lends it humanity.”