Sleeping giants : a novel

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Title:

Sleeping giants : a novel

Author:

Denfeld, Rene, author.

ISBN:

9780063014732

Edition:

First edition.

Physical Description:

292 pages ; 22 cm

Subject Term:

Adoption -- Fiction.

Siblings -- Fiction.

Foster children -- Fiction.

Brothers -- Death -- Fiction.

Adopted children -- Fiction.

Birthmothers -- Fiction.

Genre:

Detective and mystery fiction.

Suspense fiction.

Novels.

Summary:

"Twenty years ago, a nine-year-old boy was swept away by powerful waves on a remote Oregon beach, his body lost to the sea. Only a stone memorial remains to mark his tragic death. For most of her life, Amanda Dufresne had no idea she had an older brother named Dennis Owens, or that he had died. Adopted as a baby, she learned about him while looking into her late birth mother, and is curious to know more about this lost sibling. A solitary young woman, Amanda has always felt distanced from the world around her. Her brain works differently from others, leaving her feeling set apart. Her one true companion is the orphaned polar bear she cares for working at the zoo. By getting to know her birth family, she hopes to understand more about herself. Retired police officer Larry Palmer is a widower with nothing but time and in need of a purpose. He offers to help Amanda find answers. The search leads to shocking and heartbreaking discoveries. Dennis Owen had been a forgotten foster child abandoned to a home for disturbed boys off the coast. As Amanda and Larry dig deeper into the past, the two stumble upon decades of cruelty and hidden crimes--including a barbaric treatment still used today"--

Holds:

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Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Lake Elmo Library	FICTION DEN	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Valley Library (Lakeland)	FICTION DEN	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Wildwood Library (Mahtomedi)	FICTION DEN	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

"Rene Denfeld reminds us that storytelling remains one of the most powerful means we have of confronting our darkest human impulses, and sometimes overcoming them."--Washington Post

From the bestselling author of The Child Finder and The Enchanted, a compelling and poignant story of sibling bonds, monsters masquerading as caretakers, terrifying secrets, and the power of love to right even the most egregious wrongs.

Twenty years ago, a nine-year-old boy was swept away by powerful waves on a remote Oregon beach, his body lost to the sea. Only a stone memorial remains to mark his tragic death.

For most of her life, Amanda Dufresne had no idea she had an older brother named Dennis Owens, or that he had died. Adopted as a baby, she learned about him while looking into her late birth mother, and is curious to know more about this lost sibling. A solitary young woman, Amanda has always felt distanced from the world around her. Her brain works differently from others, leaving her feeling set apart. Her one true companion is the orphaned polar bear she cares for working at the zoo. By getting to know her birth family, she hopes to understand more about herself.

Retired police officer Larry Palmer is a widower with nothing but time and in need of a purpose. He offers to help Amanda find answers. The search leads to shocking and heartbreaking discoveries. Dennis Owen had been a forgotten foster child abandoned to a home for disturbed boys off the coast. As Amanda and Larry dig deeper into the past, the two stumble upon decades of cruelty and hidden crimes--including a barbaric treatment still used today.

Told in Rene Denfeld's inimitable style, Sleeping Giants is an enthralling and heartbreaking novel that burrows deep in the heart and will leave no reader untouched.

Author Notes

Rene Denfeld is an American author, based in Oregon. Her essays have been published in the New York Times and other publication. She is the author of two novels, The Enchanted, which received the Prix du Premier Roman Etranger in France, and The Child Finder, which has become an international bestseller.

In addition to writing, she was a Chief Investigator at a public defender's office, investigating death penalty cases. Her work in social justice has earned her the 2017 Break The Silence Award, given at the 24th Annual Knock Out Abuse Gala in Washington DC.

(Bowker Author Biography)

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

The mysterious drowning of nine-year-old Dennis Owens haunts the remote Oregon coastal community of Eagle Cove two decades later in Denfeld's enthralling follow-up to The Butterfly Girl. After Amanda Dufresne seeks out information about her birth parents, the lonely young zookeeper learns she had a brother, Dennis, who was taken from their alcoholic mother and put into Brightwood, a residential treatment center for boys with behavioral issues, when he was four years old. Five years later, he drowned in the nearby Pacific Ocean, possibly after escaping to the beach from Brightwood. Shocked, Amanda visits a roadside memorial overlooking the spot where Dennis was last seen 20 years earlier and meets widower Larry Palmer, a retired police officer looking for a purpose. Together, Amanda and Larry dig into Brightwood's troubled history, learning along the way that most local authorities and community members would prefer tales of the treatment center and its multiple missing boys to stay forgotten. Eventually, Amanda and Larry learn that a regime change at Brightwood just before Dennis was admitted led to the appointment of new director Martha King, who believed her cruel treatments benefitted the children even as she dealt them irreparable harm. Though the subject matter is often wrenching, Denfeld wrings considerable sweetness from the relationship between Amanda and Larry, and never allows the narrative to wallow in Dickensian misery. The result is a heartfelt mystery that will keep readers turning pages late into the night. Agent: Richard Pine, InkWell. (Mar.)

Booklist Review

The cold, pounding ocean, treacherous with undercurrents, mauls the Oregon coast and sets the highs and lows of this magnetizing tale of loss and discovery. Ex-cop and widower Larry Palmer is lonely and bored in tiny, storm-battered Eagle Cove. When adoptee Amanda Dufresne arrives, looking for traces of the brother she has just learned about, Larry is glad to help her search for details about Dennis' time at Brightwood, a "home for troubled boys," and his tragic drowning. The story rolls back 20 years. A new custodian at Brightwood, a survivor of a similar institution, slowly earns the trust of cautious Dennis, until a new director arrives, practicing a new and harrowing form of therapy. Holding time is meant to break children down, and Martha King takes it to horrific extremes. The appalling Brightwood scenes run in sharp contrast to Amanda's sensitive work as a zookeeper caring for Molly, a rescued polar bear. The more questions Amanda and Larry ask about King, the more escalating dangers they face. In her fourth novel, acclaimed Denfeld (The Butterfly Girl, 2019) draws on her experiences as a social justice investigator and foster mother to astutely portray neurodivergent characters in a transfixingly atmospheric, brilliantly plotted, heart-seizing drama of cruelty and trauma, cover-ups and murder, and the depthless mysteries of pain and love.

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Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Booklist Review

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