Hegland
has crafted a powerfully imagined
and beautifully written examination of the way a single choice
can lead us inexorably to places we never thought we'd go.
The
story opens as two young women learn they are pregnant. Anna,
a talented photography student, decides to have an abortion.
Cerise, a lonely high-school girl who is desperate for someone
to love, keeps her baby.
From
this point the lives of the two diverge dramatically; Anna
graduates, marries, and ultimately becomes a photography professor
with daughters of her own, while Cerise, rejected by her mother
and unable to finish high school, struggles to provide for
her young daughter and, later, a son. When tragedy robs Cerise
of the small island of security she has created for her family,
the two women cross paths in a scenario both poignant and
plausible.
Hegland's
first novel was picked up by a major publisher after it caught
the attention of both booksellers and readers, and her second
lives up to its promise.
Meredith Parets
From
Booklist
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