Set against the backdrop of rural New Hampshire, the story follows Abi Maxwell, who grapples with her child's gender identity in a conservative community. Initially intending to raise her child away from societal norms, Abi faces turmoil when her child transitions and embraces a female identity. This personal journey explores themes of acceptance, familial love, and the challenges of navigating societal expectations, highlighting the tension between personal truth and community judgment.
“A lush and luminous gem of a novel: The Den is a book with depth and mystery and soul.” —Chris Bohjalian, author of The Red Lotus Sisters Henrietta and Jane are fifteen and twelve, growing up in a farmhouse on the outskirts of a small New England town. When Henrietta becomes obsessed with a local boy, Jane takes to trailing the young couple, spying on their trysts. Until one night, Henrietta vanishes into the woods. A century and a half earlier, sisters Elspeth and Claire are separated by an ocean: Elspeth’s pregnancy at seventeen meant she was quickly married and sent to America to avoid certain shame. But when she begins ingratiating herself with a wealthy mill owner, a series of wrenching and violent events unfold, culminating in her disappearance. Each in their own times, Jane and Claire must search for their missing sisters beneath the watchful eyes of their shared small town. With echoes of The Scarlet Letter, The Den is a transporting, layered tale of two women, living generations apart yet connected by place and longing, and condemned for the very same desires.
Henrietta ist eine lebenshungrige junge Frau, die auf einer Farm in den Wäldern New Hampshires aufwächst. Elspeth ist 150 Jahre früher, Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts, aus Schottland an ebendiesen Ort gekommen. Und doch verbindet die beiden mehr als dieser Zufall. Beide geraten in Konflikt mit den Moralvorstellungen ihrer Zeit. Beide verschwinden aus dem Leben ihrer Familie. Und beide hinterlassen eine schmerzliche Lücke im Leben ihrer jüngeren Schwestern. Diese versuchen zu verstehen, was mit ihrem Geschwister geschehen ist. Denn tief in ihrem Inneren wissen sie, dass sie selbst nicht ganz frei von Schuld sind.