Book Nook - What We Leave Behind

 From the acclaimed author of Summer Hours at the Robbers Library comes a tenderhearted story of two very different women grappling with the messy emotional legacies passed down by their parents - What We Leave Behind. The novel explores the complexities of love, loss, family relationships, and self-discovery.

Are we a product of how we were raised, or is our identity hardwired by our genetic inheritance? When her adoptive mother dies in a freak accident, high school senior Melody Marcus doubles down on her refusal to learn anythinga bout her birth parents. In this age of DNA testing, though, that may not be possible, and the secrets hidden in her DNA threaten to upend everything she knows about herself and her family.

For Candace Milton, a successful woman in her forties, the collateral damage form her parents' tortured marriage has led to a life of intentional unattachment. She is happy - enough. But a chance encounter with a friend of Melody's father will challenge this assumption and force her to reimagine who she is and who she might become.

I had a chance to review a copy of this book. The stories of the two women are woven together well, in a thoughtful and emotionally deep book. The book explores themes of adoption and identity in a variety of settings, such as holidays and educational transitions. It's not a terribly heavy book, but it still encourages thought and introspection.

Sue Halpern is the author of seven previous books of fiction and nonfiction. A beloved college proessor, she lives in Vermont with her husband, writer and environmental activist Bill McKibben, and is a scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College.