There never was a gator killing around here, contrary to everlasting rumor, and there was only one real murder, but it seems each bad thing that happens is like an incantation invoking the Binderup family, its women and their dying.
GIRLS WITH LONG SHADOWS
by Tennessee Hill
Harper, TBD
(via Park & Fine Literary and Media)
Photo by Emily Townsend
Identical triplets Baby A, Baby B, and Baby C Binderup came into the world as their mother left it, leaving them nameless and in the care of their Gram Isadora, whose maternal instincts died alongside her daughter. 19 years later, the triplets work at their Gram’s crumbling golf course, where the watchful eyes of the town observe them perched on lawnmowers, serving up glasses of lemonade to golfers and swimming in the murky waters of the river nearby, hoping to attract the kind of attention they are only beginning to understand.
Through the eyes of cautious Baby B, we watch as lustful Baby A and introverted Baby C find matches among the town boys. When even Baby B notices that the town’s golden boy seems to be intrigued by her, only her, it begins to appear that the young women’s wish to be seen as individuals has been granted – until a seemingly trivial kiss is gifted to the wrong sister. What comes next forces the sisters to confront the devastating implications of their collective anonymity. As insecurities become weapons and the tight bonds between sisters are severed, the threat of female teenage angst turns real and deadly, and the young women face a future where triplets must learn to be twins.
Tennessee Hill is a poet by trade; she was the 2022 Gregory Djanikian scholar and holds an MFA from North Carolina State University. Her work has been featured in POETRY, Best New Poets, Southern Humanities Review, Fugue, Arkansas International, and elsewhere. She is a South Texas native, where she still lives and teaches with her husband and their dog, Bark Ruffalo.
To be common is to be an everyday person. It’s to do the things that you are expected to do, whether that’s what your parents want for you, or your employer, or your spouse, et cetera. But if you want to be more than you are, more than you think you can be, then you need to recognize and learn from your mistakes to lead a life of excellence.
For the past five years, Ryan Richardson has relived that terrible night. The car door ripping open. The crushing blow to the head. The hands yanking him from the vehicle. His girlfriend Ali’s piercing scream as she is taken. With no trace of Ali or the car, a cloud of suspicion hangs over Ryan. But with no proof and a good lawyer, he’s never charged, though that doesn’t matter to the podcasters and internet trolls. Now, Ryan has changed his last name, and entered law school. He’s put his past behind him. Until, on a summer trip abroad to Italy with his law-school classmates, Ryan gets a call from his father: Ali’s car has finally been found, submerged in a lake in his hometown. Inside are two dead men and a cryptic note with five words written on the envelope in Ali’s handwriting: If something happens to me… Then, halfway around the world, the unthinkable happens: Ryan sees the man who has haunted his dreams since that night. As Ryan races from the rolling hills of Tuscany, to a rural village in the UK, to the glittering streets of Paris in search of the truth, he has no idea that his salvation may lie with a young sheriff’s deputy in Kansas working her first case, and a mobster in Philadelphia who’s experienced tragedy of his own.
Women are often socialized to prioritize the needs of others, leaving little time for themselves. In this book, women are equipped with 101 practical and encouraging self-care activities—organized around the five pillars of self-care—to help them care for, replenish, and reconnect with themselves and live a more joyful life.
What if the first true crime story you ever wrote (Abandoned Prayers) had loose ends that haunted you for more than thirty years?