Visitation Street

A powerfully beautiful novelNew York Times

Intoxicating. . . . Imbued with mystery and danger Emma Straub

Pochodas premise is inspired, the novel that unfolds even more so. Rich characters, surprising shifts of plot and mood. I loved it. Lionel Shriver

As the hot summer rolls on in Red Hook, Brooklyn, bored and listless fifteen-year-olds June and Val are looking for some fun. Forget the boys, the bottles, the coded whistles, Val wants to take a raft out onto the bay.

But out on the water, as the bright light of day gives way to darkness, the girls disappear, and only Val returns, washed ashore semi-conscious in the weeds.

Junes shocking disappearance will reverberate in the lives of many of Red Hooks residents. Fadi, the Lebanese bodega owner, trolls for information about the crime. Cree, just beginning to pull it together after his fathers murder, unwittingly makes himself the chief suspect. And as Val emerges from the shadow of her missing friend, her teacher Jonathan will be forced to confront a past riddled with tragic sins of omission.

Combining intensely vivid prose with breathtaking psychological insight, Visitation explores a cast of solitary souls, pulled by family, love, and betrayal, who yearn for a chance to escape, no matter the cost.

Gritty and magical, filled with mystery, poetry and pain, Ivy Pochodas voice recalls Richard Price, Junot Diaz, and even Alice Sebold, yet its indelibly her own Dennis Lehane

Explores a communitys response to tragedy with crystalline prose, a dose of the uncanny, and an unblinking eye for both human frailty and resilience . . . Marvellous Deborah Harkness