A Fine Layer of Dust

I was recently blessed with an ARC of Barbara Conrey’s latest novel, A Fine Layer of Dust, and I was not prepared.

Full disclosure: Barbara is a friend, and an all-around wonderful person. However, she is also an auto-buy author for reasons that I will get into below.

Review

In all of her books, Conrey has a knack for reaching deep inside people and finding those complex emotions that we usually only like to talk about with our therapists, scooping them out and exposing them to the light. Her books absolutely gut me on an emotional level, but she never fails to offer hope in the end. A Fine Layer of Dust is no different.

Jake Trenton is a man who has invested a lot in meeting other people’s expectations: the senior partners in his law firm, his father’s, and his family’s. But due to past abuse and trauma, he feels like his efforts are never enough. When his wife decides to become a surrogate to help a couple unable to have a child themselves, her selflessness and the disruption it creates in their lives puts Jake into a tailspin. Jake struggles professionally. His relationship with their teenage daughter starts to fall apart, and he doesn’t know how to steer things back on course. Overwhelmed by it all, Jake makes a bad choice that threatens to blow up everything he’s been working so hard to maintain.

Conrey explores the complex emotions around surrogacy including Jake’s wife, Sophia’s reasons for offering to carry another couple’s child and the complications that can arise within families who turn to surrogates to have children. I have friends who have had children via surrogates and it is not a topic that gets explored on this level often. This book gives a thorough glimpse into the process and the emotional impact.

Over all of this like a ‘fine layer of dust’ (see what I did there) lies the residue of Jake’s own childhood trauma and his father’s ongoing emotional abuse. This is much of what drives Jake’s professional ambition, and the way he sees himself. But once his life gets upended, Jake is forced to examine how he has allowed this trauma to rule him, and what he can do to heal from it.

A Fine Layer of Dust is a heart-wrenching tale about the generational consequences of abuse. It is a stark, but hopeful reminder that breaking the cycle of abuse is a lifelong process which Jake Trenton learns the hard way. Conrey has done it again. She has pulled our darkest feelings from those hidden places inside us and exposed them to a healing light.

A Fine Layer of Dust is available now. You can get your copy here. And find more information about Barbara and her books on her website.