Some Things That Stay

Winner of the Stephen Crane Award for First Fiction. “Set in 1954, this tangy debut is [a] fully imagined coming-of-age story.” —Entertainment Weekly

A New York Times Notable Book

Tamara Anderson’s father is a landscape artist who quickly tires of the scenery, so every year her family seeks out new locations for his inspiration. When the Andersons move to a farmhouse in Mayville, New York, in the spring of 1954, fifteen-year-old Tamara and her mother want to settle down and make it home. Mayville begins to work a strange magic on Tamara and her siblings: there’s the proselytizing family in the tar-paper house across the street; the dairy cow that becomes a beloved pet; the dead boy who used to live in Tamara’s bedroom; her friend Brenda, who teaches her to swear; and Brenda’s big brother, Rusty, an irresistible freckle-faced redhead.

While Tamara experiences her first real year of happiness, her mother is diagnosed with tuberculosis, forcing her into a sanatorium. Tamara struggles with her desire to stay in Mayville, her fear of losing her mother, and her anger at being left in charge of two younger siblings while her father escapes into the world of his art.

Deeply moving, with a profound understanding of family dynamics and adolescent anguish, Some Things That Stay introduces an unforgettable narrative voice and marks the arrival of a distinctive, new American talent.

“Memorable.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A heartfelt first novel [in which] the characters are so vivid and rounded they produce a reflected happiness in the reader.” —The Miami Herald