The Great Alone

by Kristin Hannah

She came at them fast, bone bracelets clattering on her thick wrists. She was old: at least fifty.

A girl was like a kite; without her mother’s strong, steady hold on the string, she might just float away, be lost somewhere among the clouds.

Mama could never leave Dad, and Leni would never leave Mama. And Dad could never let them go. In this toxic knot that was their family, there was no escape for any of them.