This spellbinding and psychologically penetrating debut novel delves into the dangers underlying the stories we tell ourselves to make life bearable.
Eleven-year-old narrator Annie lives in a small house with her Gran and her nine-year-old brother, Rew, at the edge of a forest. They call it the Zebra Forest because of its mix of white birch and chocolate oak trees. Gran has good days and bad days, but Annie and Rew can always escape to the Zebra to tell stories. Gran told them that their father was killed by an angry man who picked a fight. "My father died and the other man was sent away, and that was all," says Annie. "The story of my father was a short one." Annie remembers her mother's parting words as she dropped off the children with their Gran eight years before: "They were always his idea, anyway."
Gerwitz counterbalances the personalities of the two siblings to brilliant effect. Annie sees things in black and white, like the Zebra Forest, and Rew reads between the lines. Even minor characters spring to life through the author's use of tactile details. When a stranger breaks in through their kitchen door, they think Gran is crazy when she calls him by their father's name. This is a timeless story of how lies can imprison families. Only by facing the truth can they begin to take hold of their lives and begin to heal. Readers will hope for many more books to come from newcomer Adina Rishe Gerwitz. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness