Up from the Blue: A Novel

by Susan Henderson

Overview

Tillie Harris's life is in disarray—her husband is away on business, the boxes in her new home aren't unpacked, and the telephone isn't even connected yet. Though she's not due for another month, sudden labor pains force Tillie to reach out to her estranged father for help, a choice that means facing the painful memories she's been running from since she was a little girl.

An extraordinary debut from a talented new voice, Up from the Blue untangles the year in Tillie's life that changed everything: 1975, the year her mother disappeared.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062011770
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	01/17/2024
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	444,739
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Susan Henderson is a four-time Pushcart Prize nominee and the recipient of an Academy of American Poets Prize. She is the author of two novels, The Flicker of Old Dreams and Up from the Blue, both published by HarperCollins. Susan lives in Kings Park, New York and blogs at the writer support group, LitPark.com.

Editorial Reviews

This first novel from Henderson (curator, NPR's Dime Stories) opens in 1991 as twentysomething Matilda Harris goes into premature labor in her new Washington, DC, apartment. The only person she can think of to call is her father, with whom she hasn't spoken in three years. The story then turns to eight-year-old Tillie as she and her family relocate to Washington from New Mexico when her father, a weapons system designer, gets a new job at the Pentagon. But Tillie's mother isn't in Washington when she arrives. Tillie's older brother, Phil, isn't much help, and her father just wants her to be a good soldier and avoid the usual chaos that surrounds her. Tillie longs for the bright colors and dancing and joy she associates with her mother. Instead, she basks in the praise from her teacher and feels an affinity for the one black girl in her class, who comes in on the bus. VERDICT Henderson beautifully portrays this family in crisis through its most voluble and consistent member. Rapturous prose reveals young Tillie's heart as she yearns for the mother who will make her world better but who can't seem to mend her own tortured soul. A triumphant debut. [Online reading group guide.]—Bette-Lee Fox, Library Journal

Library Journal