In 1956, when divorced, Jew­ish work­ing-mom Ava rents a house with her twelve-year-old son, Lewis, in a Boston sub­urb, the neigh­bor­hood is less than wel­com­ing. Lewis yearns for his absent father, befriend­ing the only oth­er father­less kids: Jim­my and Rose. One after­noon, Jim­my goes miss­ing. The neigh­bor­hood — in the era of Eisen­how­er, the Cold War, bomb scares, and para­noia — seizes the oppor­tu­ni­ty to fur­ther ostra­cize Ava and her son. Lewis nev­er recov­ered from the dis­ap­pear­ance of his child­hood friend and Rose is now a school­teacher in anoth­er city, watch­ing over chil­dren as she was nev­er able to watch over her own broth­er. Ava is still liv­ing in the neigh­bor­hood, build­ing a new life for her­self in a new decade. When the mys­tery of Jim­my’s dis­ap­pear­ance is unex­pect­ed­ly solved, all three must try to reclaim what they have lost. As she did in her best­selling nov­el Pic­tures of You, Car­o­line Leav­itt once again deliv­ers a grip­ping sto­ry that breaks your heart and then puts the pieces back togeth­er in a way you least expect.

Read Car­o­line Leav­it­t’s Post for The Post­script: JBC Book Club Bonus