Monday, July 31, 2023

Nine unforgettable novels about protagonists returning home

Sara Flannery Murphy grew up in Arkansas, where she divided her time between Little Rock and Eureka Springs, a small artists’ community in the Ozark Mountains. She received her MFA in creative writing at Washington University in St. Louis and studied library science in British Columbia. She lives in Utah with her husband and her two young sons.

Murphy is the author of The Possessions (2017), Girl One (2021), and The Wonder State (2023).

[My Book, The Movie: The PossessionsThe Page 69 Test: The PossessionsWriters Read: Sara Flannery Murphy (March 2017).]

At CrimeReads she tagged "nine favorite novels about protagonists going back home – both thrillers and more lighthearted stories." One title on the list:
The Good Ones by Polly Stewart

The death of Nicola’s mother sends her back to her Appalachian hometown, intending to sell her mother’s house and swiftly depart again. But the town is irrevocably haunted by Nicola’s previous best friend, Lauren, who went missing under mysterious circumstances. And, as it turns out, the town is haunted by past versions of Nicola, too. In her atmospheric thriller, Stewart deftly explores the ways that our understanding of our younger selves is clouded by the stories we tell, and that others may remember events from entirely different angles.
Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue