Return to Dalton as Shannon Bowring draws another stunningly human portrait of small town America.It's been five years since Bridget Theroux's death shocked the small town of Dalton, Maine, leaving behind husband Nate and daughter Sophie, now a vibrant young child. Nate doesn't always know how to answer her questions, but he is intent on raising her with joy—and shielding her from her grandmother, Annette, who remains dangerously locked away in her grief.Af...

For a while, Rose Douglas believed life had given her a break. She was enjoying a steady job at the local clinic; her two young boys, Adam and Brandon, were doing well in school; and their family had found an easy friendship with widower Nate Theroux and his daughter, Sophie. The possibility of something deeper even hung between her and Nate—until the day Tommy Merchant, her ex and the father of her sons, showed up without warning. While Rose knows all too well his erratic and abusive natu...

From debut author Shannon Bowring comes a novel of small town America that Pulitzer-winner Richard Russo calls, "measured, wise, and beautiful."It's 1990. In Dalton, Maine, life goes on. Rose goes to work at the diner every day, her bruises hidden from both the customers and her two young boys. At a table she waits, Dr. Richard Haskell looks back on the one choice that's charted his entire life, before his thoughts wander back to his wife, Trudy, and her best frien...

There's no place quite like Maine. It's Vacationland. The birthplace of L.L. Bean and the whoopie pie. Maine's landscape encompasses mountains, forests, beaches, islands, and even a desert! The winters are long and brutal, and the summers are plagued by black flies, venomous caterpillars, and tourists. But despite these challenges, and in part because of them, the people who call Maine home are some of the most generous, hard-working folks you'll ever meet. They never fail to show up (even...