Weathering

About this book

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year. Pearl doesnt know how shes ended up in the river--the same messy cacophonous river in the same rain-soaked valley shed been stuck in for years. But here her spirit swirls and stays . . . Ada Pearls daughter doesnt know how shes ended up back in the house she left thirteen years ago--with no heating apart from a fire she cant light no way of getting around apart from an old car shes scared to drive and no company apart from her own young daughter Pepper. She wants to clear out Pearls house so she can leave and not look back. Pepper has grown used to following her restless mother from place to place but this house with its faded photographs its boxes of cameras and its stuffed jackdaw is something new. Fascinated by the scattering of people she meets by the river that unfurls through the valley and by the strange old woman who sits on the bank with her feet in the cold coppery water Pepper doesnt know why anyone would ever want to leave. As the first frosts of autumn herald the coming of a long winter and Pepper and Ada find themselves entangled with the life of the valley with new companions who wont be closed out each will discover the ways that places can take root inside us bind us together and become us.