Carrie La Seur makes her remarkable debut with The Home Place, a mesmerizing, emotionally evocative, and atmospheric literary novel in the vein of The House Girl and A Land More Kind Than Home, in which a successful lawyer is pulled back into her troubled family's life in rural Montana in the wake of her sister's death.
The only Terrebonne who made it out, Alma thought she was done with Montana, with its bleak winters and stifling ways. But an unexpected call from the local police takes the successful lawyer back to her provincial hometown and pulls her into the family trouble she thought she'd left far behind: Her lying, party-loving sister, Vicky, is dead. Alma is told that a very drunk Vicky had wandered away from a party and died of exposure after a night in the brutal cold. But when Alma returns home to bury Vicky and see to her orphaned niece, she discovers that the death may not have been an accident.
The Home Place is a story of secrets that will not lie still, human bonds that will not break, and crippling memories that will not be silenced. It is a story of rural towns and runaways, of tensions corporate and racial, of childhood trauma and adolescent betrayal, and of the guilt that even forgiveness cannot ease. Most of all, this is a story of the place we carry in us always: home.
"Powerfully evocative and page-turning."--Rosamund Lupton, New York Times-bestselling author of SISTER and AFTERWARDS
"Once this novel is cracked open it'll pull you in and dare you to come up for air...THE HOME PLACE is a lot of things: a mystery, a crime drama, a family saga, and - most importantly - a very, very good book."--Wiley Cash, New York Times-bestselling author of This Dark Road to Mercy
"Walloping in suspense, drama, rage, and remorse, this debut is an accomplished literary novel of the new West."--Library Journal
"La Seur makes a very assured debut. Her characters are rich and believable; the plot is perfectly paced with mystery and romance enough to keep the reader hooked. And it's all played against a beautifully drawn Montana backdrop."--Booklist
"Carrie La Seur's debut is a gripping story of family, love and murder. Set against an indelibly drawn Montana landscape, The Home Place explores the intangible ways we are both defined by and in opposition to the people and places we call home."--Tara Conklin, New York Times-bestselling author of The House Girl
"La Seur entices readers with impeccable prose imbued with a blend of romance, nostalgia and suspense."--Kirkus Reviews
"The Home Place is one of the year's strongest debuts."--Associated Press
"It is always a treat when a talented writer chooses to write about her home, particularly when she does so with authority, clarity and imagination...The Home Place gives readers a stunning but frank look at what it means to be from Billings, Montana."--BookPage
"A love story of the land and its people...captivating."--Charleston Post & Courier
The Home Place is one of the year s strongest debuts. --Associated Press"
