Golden State: A Novel

About this book

A haunting literary drama with a ripped-from-the headlines urgency reminiscent of Defending Jacob and Sue Millers While I Was Gone Golden State asks hard questions about the limits of loyalty and the bounds of family ties. Growing up in the 1960s in one of Californias most prominent political families Natalie Askedahl worshipped her big brother Bobby a sensitive math prodigy who served as her protector and confidante. But after Bobby left home at sixteen on a Princeton scholarship something changed between them. Now that Natalie is happily married with a career and two young daughters her only real regret is losing Bobby. Then a bomb explodes in the middle of her seemingly ideal life. Her oldest daughter is on the Stanford campus when one person is killed and another maimed. Other bombings follow across California. Frightened for her family Natalie grows obsessed with the case until she makes an unthinkable discovery: the bombers manifesto reads alarmingly like the last letter she has from Bobby. Unsure of whom to sacrifice and whom to protect Natalie is confronted with a terrible choice that will send her down a rabbit hole of confusion lies and betrayals. As her life splits irrevocably into before and after she begins to learn that some of the most dangerous things in the world are the stories we tell ourselves.