The House of Deep Water

Three women learn what it means to come home–and to make peace with the family, love affairs, and memories they’d once left behind–in this stunning and perceptive debut novel.

River Bend, Michigan, is the kind of small town most can’t imagine leaving but three women couldn’t wait to escape. When each must return–Linda Williams, never sure what she wants; her mother, Paula, always too sure; and Beth DeWitt, one of River Bend’s only black daughters, now a mother of two who’d planned to raise her own children anywhere else–their paths collide under Beth’s father’s roof. As one town struggles to contain all of their love affairs and secrets, a local scandal forces Beth to confront her own devastating past.

Uniting the voices of mothers and daughters, husbands, lovers, and fathers, this unforgettable debut novel offers both a compulsively readable family story and a riveting portrait of small-town America today. With wisdom, humor, and exceptional heart, The House of Deep Water explores motherhood, trauma, love, loss, and new beginnings found in that most unlikely place: home.