Nyle's life with her grandmother on their Vermont sheep farm advances
rhythmically through the seasons until the night of the accident at the
Cookshire nuclear power plant. Without warning, Nyle's modest world
fills with protective masks, evacuations, contaminated food,
disruptions, and mistrust. Things become even more complicated when Ezra
Trent and his mother, refugees from the heart of the accident, take
temporary shelter in the back bedroom of Nyle's house. The back bedroom
is the dying room: It took her mother when Nyle was six; it stole away
her grandfather just two years ago. Now, Ezra is back there and Nyle
doesn't want to open her heart to him. Too many times she's let people
in, only to have them desert her. If she lets herself care for Ezra, she
knows he'll end up leaving her, too. "The author's understated approach
heightens the emotional impact of her searching and memorable tale." --
Publishers Weekly, Starred Review "Hesse transcends the specific to
illuminate universal questions of responsibility, care, and love. . . .
Hesse portrays her characters' anguish and their growing tenderness with
such unwavering clarity and grace that she sustains the tension of her
lyrical, understated narrative right to her stunning, beautifully
wrought conclusion." -- Kirkus Reviews, Pointer Review
