* Winner of The San Diego Book Award *
* An Indie Next Pick *
From the award-winning author hailed by the New York Times Book
Review for her "careful poetic description" and complex, compelling
family dramas, Grace by T. Greenwood is a powerful novel about a family
poised to implode, the transformative power of art, and the salvation
gleaned from even the smallest mercies...
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.
