Publisher's Weekly Review
As this deeply felt contemporary novel opens, Meggie is going through the effects of her recently deceased father, who raised her single-handedly since the untimely death of her mother. Among her father's effects, she finds an old envelope containing a scrap of paper with the enigmatic scrawl "Do not find me," a tantalizing clue to a part of her father's life about which she knows nothing. Her attempts to glean more information from her father's relatives and friends prove fruitless, but readers soon hear at length, in her father's own voice, about the long, tempestuous relationship he had with a woman in New York before settling down in Minnesota and marrying Meggie's mother. The chapters alternate between Meggie's voice and her father's, and it is in the former that Novak's writing is at its most textured and incisive, revealing Meggie's psyche as she re-evaluates her life as a daughter and as a wife in a loveless and remote marriage. By contrast, the story of Meggie's father in New York, though more eventful, is less surely told and, much like Meggie, the reader is likely to find him ultimately unknowable. Nevertheless, Novak's engaging story and elegant prose make for a worthwhile read. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
When Meggie heads to Lost Lake in Northern Minnesota to tend to her dying dad, Giovanni Paulo, and then settle his estate, she discovers a document that unnerves her. It's a scrap of paper with the words, "Do not find me," handwritten and unsigned. Who sent it? Meggie wonders. Was it meant for her father? What did it signify, and why did he keep it, hidden in the back of a dresser drawer? And when was it sent? The mystery unfolds in five chapters, two telling Giovanni's story, three telling Meggie's. The alternating accounts provide readers with insights into Meggie's childhood and offer information about numerous incidents that took place during Giovanni's early years and dramatically altered the course of his life. We learn, for example, that when Giovanni was in his mid-20s, he moved to New York Citya several-year experiment that took him from his roots on the Minnesota Iron Rangeand had a short-lived and tumultuous affair with the beautiful, enigmatic, and brash Corrine Bernard. This was long before Giovanni returned home and long before he met Meggie's mom, married her, and became a dad. Meggie, of course, knew that her father had once lived in Manhattan but had never heard about either the romance or his broken heart. Instead, theirs had been a child-parent relationship, with Meggie never getting to know Giovanni as a person. For more than a decade, Meggie had fixated on her own comfortable, but loveless, marriage and the rearing of her sons. Now, in the throes of grief, she's questioning her choices, thinking about options, and asking questions. The result is a taut and beguiling meditation on love, loss, secrets, and silences. Tender and intricately written, this well-crafted novel is poetic, evocative, and beautiful. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
