What We Leave Behind: A Novel

(Paperback)

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From the author ofSummer Hours at the Robbers Library, a tenderhearted story of two very different women grappling with the messy emotional legacies passed down by their parentsfor fans of Dani Shapiro, Ann Napolitano, and Jody Picoult.

Its the perennial question: are we a product of how we were raised, or is our identity hardwired by our genetic inheritance When her adoptive mother dies in a freak accident, high school senior Melody Marcus doubles down on her refusal to learn anything about her birth parents. In this age of 23&me, though, that may not be possible, and the secrets hidden in her DNA threaten to upend everything she knows about herself and her family.

For Candace Milton, a successful woman in her forties, the collateral damage from her parents tortured marriage has led to a life of intentional unattachment. She is happyenough. But a chance encounter with a friend of Melodys father will challenge this assumption and force her to reimagine who she is and who she might become.

Big-hearted evocative, and achingly relatable,What We Leave Behindgrapples with destiny, belonging, and love, and makes us question our own idea of family: the kind were born into and the kind we create.

Reviews

"Sue Halperns latest novel takes on the eternal big questions (identity, fate vs. free will) as well as many of their modern permutations (the pandoras box of genetic testing, the bankruptcy of meritocracy) in a novel thats as propulsive as it is philosophical. Whether theyre related by blood, law, or the more contingent bond of friendship, Halperns beguiling, prickly characters achieve small but indisputable measures of grace as they reckon with their families of origin. With superb plotting and raucous wit added to the mix,What We Leave Behindis a deliciously absorbing read." Alison Bechdel, author of Fun Home

Author Bio

Sue Halpern is the author of seven books of fiction and nonfiction, most recentlySummer Hours at the Robbers Library.Her writing has appeared inThe New Yorker, theNew York Times Magazine,theNew York Review of Books, Rolling Stone,andCond Nast Traveler.A formerNew Yorkerstaff writer, she lives Vermont with her husband, the writer and environmental activist Bill McKibben, and is a scholar-in-residence at Middlebury College.