In this dazzling debut novel, a hidden and nearly forgotten magic --- of Reforging pencils, bringing the memories they contain back to life --- holds the power to transform a young woman’s relationship with her grandmother and to mend long-lost connections across time and space.

In this dazzling debut novel, a hidden and nearly forgotten magic --- of Reforging pencils, bringing the memories they contain back to life --- holds the power to transform a young woman’s relationship with her grandmother and to mend long-lost connections across time and space.

In this dazzling debut novel, a hidden and nearly forgotten magic --- of Reforging pencils, bringing the memories they contain back to life --- holds the power to transform a young woman’s relationship with her grandmother and to mend long-lost connections across time and space.

Monica Tsai spends most days on her computer, journaling the details of her ordinary life and coding for a program that seeks to connect strangers online. A self-proclaimed recluse, she's always struggled to make friends and, as a college freshman, finds herself escaping into a digital world, counting the days until she can return home to her beloved grandparents. They are now in their 90s, and Monica worries about them constantly --- especially her grandmother, Yun, who survived two wars in China before coming to the States and whose memory has begun to fade.

Though Yun rarely speaks of her past, Monica is determined to find the long-lost cousin she was separated from years ago. One day, the very program Monica is helping to build connects her to a young woman, whose gift of a single pencil holds a surprising clue. Monica’s discovery of a hidden family history is exquisitely braided with Yun’s own memories as she writes of her years in Shanghai, working at the Phoenix Pencil Company. As WWII rages outside their door, Yun and her cousin, Meng, learn of a special power the women in their family possess: the ability to Reforge a pencil’s words. But when the government uncovers their secret, they are forced into a life of espionage, betraying other people’s stories to survive.

Combining the cross-generational family saga and epistolary form of A TALE FOR THE TIME BEING with the uplifting, emotional magic of THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY, Allison King’s stunning debut novel asks: Who owns and inherits our stories? The answers and secrets that surface on the page may have the unerasable power to reconnect a family and restore a legacy. 

From Wally Lamb, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of SHE'S COME UNDONE and I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE, comes the propulsive story of a young father who, after an unbearable tragedy, reckons with the possibility of atonement for the unforgivable.

From Wally Lamb, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of SHE'S COME UNDONE and I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE, comes the propulsive story of a young father who, after an unbearable tragedy, reckons with the possibility of atonement for the unforgivable.

From Wally Lamb, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of two Oprah Book Club picks --- SHE'S COME UNDONE and I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE --- comes the propulsive story of a young father who, after an unbearable tragedy, reckons with the possibility of atonement for the unforgivable.

Corby Ledbetter is struggling. New fatherhood, the loss of his job, and a growing secret addiction have thrown his marriage to his beloved Emily into a tailspin. And that’s before he causes the tragedy that tears the family apart. Sentenced to prison, Corby struggles to survive life on the inside, where he bears witness to frightful acts of brutality but also experiences small acts of kindness and elemental kinship with a prison librarian who sees his light and some of his fellow offenders, including a tender-hearted cellmate and a troubled teen desperate for a role model.

Buoyed by them and by his mother’s enduring faith in him, Corby begins to transcend the boundaries of his confinement, sustained by his hope that mercy and reconciliation still might be possible. Can his crimes ever be forgiven by those he loves?

THE RIVER'S DAUGHTER is a vivid and propulsive memoir about finding courage and meaning in a life outdoors by a world-class whitewater rafting guide.

THE RIVER'S DAUGHTER is a vivid and propulsive memoir about finding courage and meaning in a life outdoors by a world-class whitewater rafting guide.

A vivid and propulsive memoir about finding courage and meaning in a life outdoors by a world-class whitewater rafting guide.

After Bridget Crocker’s parents’ volatile divorce, she moved with her mother from Southern California to Wyoming. Her life was idyllic, growing up in a trailer park on the banks of the Snake River with a stepfather she loved, a new baby brother, and the river as her companion --- until her mother suddenly took up a radical new lifestyle, becoming someone Bridget barely recognized. The one constant in her life --- the place Bridget felt whole and fully herself --- was the river. When she discovered the world of whitewater rafting, she knew she’d found her calling.

On the river, Bridget learned to read the natural world around her and came to know the language of rivers. One of the few female guides on the Snake River, she then traveled to the Zambezi River in Africa, some of the most dangerous whitewater in the world, where she faced death and learned to conquer her fears --- both on the water and off. The river taught her how to overcome years of betrayals and abuse, to trust herself, and, finally, how to help heal her family from generational cycles of trauma and poverty.

A beautifully rendered memoir of a woman coming into her own, THE RIVER'S DAUGHTER opens us to the possibilities of transformation through nature.