TUESDAY EXCERPTS: “TRUE PLACES”

Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, First Chapter/Intros, originally hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea and now hosted by I’d Rather Be at the Beach; and Teaser Tuesdays hosted by The Purple Booker.

Today’s feature is True Places, by Sonja Yoerg, “a beautiful reminder that though we may busy ourselves seeking what we want, what we need has an uncanny way of finding us.”

 

Intro:  The girl knew before she opened her eyes that Mama was gone.  She always knew.  The air inside the cabin cradled a hollow space, a missing shadow of warmth, an exhaled hum, the absent heartbeat.  Early mornings were best for hunting, she accepted that, but loneliness was a heavy cloud to wake up in all the same.

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Teaser Tuesdays:  He turned to Suzanne.  A hint of a smile played on her lips, betraying nothing more than the satisfaction of delivering another competent meal to strangers and friends, and hiding all the boredom she probably felt.(p.57)

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Synopsis:  A girl emerges from the woods, starved, ill, and alone…and collapses.

Suzanne Blakemore hurtles along the Blue Ridge Parkway, away from her overscheduled and completely normal life, and encounters the girl. As Suzanne rushes her to the hospital, she never imagines how the encounter will change her—a change she both fears and desperately needs.

Suzanne has the perfect house, a successful husband, and a thriving family. But beneath the veneer of an ideal life, her daughter is rebelling, her son is withdrawing, her husband is oblivious to it all, and Suzanne is increasingly unsure of her place in the world. After her discovery of the ethereal sixteen-year-old who has never experienced civilization, Suzanne is compelled to invite Iris into her family’s life and all its apparent privileges.

But Iris has an independence, a love of solitude, and a discomfort with materialism that contrasts with everything the Blakemores stand for—qualities that awaken in Suzanne first a fascination, then a longing. Now Suzanne can’t help but wonder: Is she destined to save Iris, or is Iris the one who will save her?

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What do you think? Do the excerpts grab you?

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