Bryn Chancellor. (2017). Sycamore: A Novel. HarperCollins.

Bryn Chancellor. 2017. Sycamore: A Novel. HarperCollins.

Bryn Chancellor, Sycamore: A Novel. HarperCollins, 2017.

Bryn Chancellor. Sycamore: A Novel. HarperCollins, 2017.

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     Bryn Chancellor's story collection When Are You Coming Home? (University of Nebraska Press) won a Prairie Schooner Book Prize, and her short fiction has appeared in Gulf Coast, Blackbird, Colorado Review, Crazyhorse, Phoebe, and elsewhere. Other honors include the Poets & Writers Maureen Egen Writers Exchange Award in fiction, and literary fellowships from the Alabama State Council on the Arts, the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and the North Carolina Arts Council. She teaches at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

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Sycamore

fullDescription

A body, and an unsolved mystery, resurface in an Arizona town in this poignant page-turner: "Begins quietly, quickly gains momentum, and ends explosively." —Library Journal (starred review)
Out for a hike one scorching afternoon in Sycamore, Arizona, a newcomer to town stumbles across what appear to be human remains embedded in the wall of a dry desert ravine. As news of the discovery makes its way around town, Sycamore's longtime residents fear the bones may belong to Jess Winters, the teenage girl who disappeared suddenly some eighteen years earlier, an unsolved mystery that has soaked into the porous rock of the town and haunted it ever since. In the days it takes the authorities to make an identification, the residents rekindle stories, rumors, and recollections both painful and poignant as they revisit Jess's troubled history. In resurrecting the past, the people of Sycamore will find clarity, unexpected possibility, and a way forward for their lives.
Skillfully interweaving multiple points of view, Sycamore is a coming-of-age story, a mystery, and a moving exploration of the elemental forces that drive human nature—desire, loneliness, grief, love, forgiveness, and hope—as witnessed through the inhabitants of one small Southwestern town. 
"Masterful . . . both propulsive and perfectly composed." —Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, New York Times–bestselling author of Good Company
"Takes readers beyond a standard whodunit and provides a more compelling take on what the experience does to the town." —St. Louis Post- Dispatch
"A movingly written, multivoiced novel examining how one tragic circumstance can sow doubt about fundamental things." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Hypnotic." —O, The Oprah Magazine
A Southwest Book of the Year, Pima County Public Library

reviews

1. • premium: False
   • source: Oprah magazine, “O’s Top 20 Books to Read This Summer”
   • content:

     "This hypnotic debut probes the disappearance of 17-year-old Jess . . . . Chancellor shifts nimbly between past and present and from character to character, cutting away the net of riddles that ensnares Sycamore's residents." — Oprah magazine, "O's Top 20 Books to Read This Summer"

     "A mystery, a coming-of-age story, and an ensemble drama are woven together in this tale of love, loss, grief...and human remains found deep in the desert." — Glamour, "New Books by Women You're Guaranteed to Love This Summer"

     "This masterfully written suspense will draw you in immediately." — Bustle, "The 15 Best Fiction Books of May" Bustle, "The 15 Best Fiction Books of May"

     "With a few opening words in each chapter, we're immersed in their worlds and the hefty burdens of their years-long emotional struggle. . . . Chancellor creates suspense and tension in quiet, insular moments—family members brooding at the dinner table, lustful gazes, the rolled eyes of hormonal teenagers." — Atlanta Journal-Constitution

     "Sycamore, Ariz., is a small town with loss and mystery at its heart. A visitor stumbles upon clues that dredge up the old memories and hurts." — Philadelphia Inquirer, "Need a Beach Read? 16 Great Choices"

     "The novel glimmers with its author's keen understanding of lives at all ages and stages. . . . At once haunting and hopeful, Sycamore displays Chancellor's talent across all of fiction's realms and showcases her generosity of spirit. . . . Powerful and moving." — Richmond Times-Dispatch

     "[An] emotional and addicting debut. . . . [an] unforgettable page‐turner. Four and a half stars." — RT Book Reviews

     "Riveting. . . . This is a movingly written, multi-voiced novel examining how one tragic circumstance can sow doubt about fundamental things. . . . a transporting vision of community, connection, and forgiveness."—Publishers Weekly (starred review, Pick of the Week) — Publishers Weekly

     "Chancellor's absorbing first novel begins quietly, quickly gains momentum, and ends explosively. . . . This gripping debut is a must for readers of literary fiction." — Library Journal (starred review)

     "A meaty, suspenseful debut." — Booklist

     "What's more wonderful than a novel that keeps you up at night and haunts you through the day? That describes Bryn Chancellor's Sycamore, about the discovery of a body that might belong to a vanished teenaged girl, a community pulling together and apart, and secrets." — Caroline Leavitt

     "Sycamore is an amazing showcase for Bryn Chancellor's great talent. . . . This is a powerful debut novel, one without flaw, and it will slay you." — Kevin Wilson, author of Tunneling to the Center of the Earth and The Family Fang

     "Haunting and elegiac. . . . Chancellor's multivocal narrative brims with intelligence and insight, and her subtle writing poignantly illuminates the ways in which we are sometimes bound, for better and for worse, by a collective sorrow." — Claire Vaye Watkins, author of Gold Fame Citrus

     "Bryn Chancellor explores the complexities of a small-town girlhood with insight and compassion. A page-turner and a heart-breaker, Sycamore marks the arrival of a shining new voice." — Tayari Jones, author of Silver Sparrow

     "Bryn Chancellor's Sycamore instantly reminded me of Tana French's thrillers: a small, intertwined community,...

2. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from March 20, 2017
     In this riveting first novel, 17-year-old Jess Winters, a recent transplant to Sycamore, Ariz., disappears one night in 1991, leaving behind a jagged hole in the community. Eighteen years later, Laura Drennan, a new professor at Sycamore College, goes hiking and accidentally discovers human bones in a dry streambed near the campus. Word quickly spreads, and the entire town wonders if Jess's remains have been discovered. As speculation runs high, we meet the former friends, classmates, neighbors, and teachers who continue to be haunted by Jess's absence. They include her still-grieving mother, Maud Winters; Angie Juarez, a high school friend who had an unrequited crush on Jess; Paul Overton, a classmate who can't forget his behavior at her last Thanksgiving dinner; Dani Newell, the best friend who felt betrayed by her; and Stevie Prentiss, an outcast with a secret. There are also flashbacks, which ultimately reveal what happened to Jess on that fatal night. This is a movingly written, multivoiced novel examining how one tragic circumstance can sow doubt about fundamental things; as one character succinctly asks, "Do we really know anyone?" The author ends her novel with a transporting vision of community, connection, and forgiveness. Agent: Henry Dunow, Dunow, Carlson & Lerner.

3. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     March 1, 2017
     The disappearance of a teenage girl casts a pall over a small Arizona town in this debut novel.Jess Winters, tall and lovely and with a penchant for poetry, turns 17 shortly after moving from Phoenix to Sycamore with her mother, Maud. Her parents' marriage dissolved when her father took up with a younger woman--faithless men are a recurring motif here--and Jess is having a hard time adjusting to her changed circumstances. To let off steam, she goes on late-night solo walks around town. Eventually, a bright local girl named Dani Newell befriends her, but when Dani's father, Adam, takes a keen interest in Jess, disaster ensues. The story flips back and forth in time from 1991, when Jess goes missing, to 2009, when a newcomer to town--also fleeing a wayward husband--makes a discovery that may or may not explain what happened to Jess. As the narrative unfolds, we learn the back stories of different townspeople, which also shed light on Jess' fate. Though the author builds a fair amount of whodunit suspense, she clearly means for this to be a serious novel about loss, grieving, and forgiveness. Unfortunately, her writing--effortful and straining too hard for effect--often gets in the way: "Moments fractured into shards of color and smell and sound she strung together like a sad, crooked garland." It also leaves little to the imagination: "Jess Winters was their metaphor: loss, secrets, guilt, failure, embedded in one shining, curly-haired girl." And while Jess is a mostly sympathetic, well-drawn character, Sycamore's other denizens are not as vividly portrayed. Though the author comes up with a deft, plausible resolution to her complicated narrative, it's not enough to save this overwritten effort.

     COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

4. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     November 1, 2017
     

     When a newcomer discovers human bones in a dry wash in Sycamore, AZ, members of the small college town suspect that they belong to Jess, a 17-year-old who vanished 18 years earlier. Debut novelist Chancellor expertly moves between this present-day discovery and the story of Jess's brief life in Sycamore. As a new arrival at 15, Jess had a hard time making friends. Through flashbacks, readers learn about her, her mother, her close friends, and her lover. Since it's clear up front that Jess vanished, her interactions are all the more meaningful. This moving story of teen problems and adult longing crackles with tension. Believable characters and a twist ending add appeal. VERDICT For fans of mystery and suspense.-Karlan Sick, formerly at New York Public Library

     Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

5. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     April 15, 2017
     While Sycamore, Arizona, newcomer Laura Drennan is walking one day, getting to know the small college town and blowing off steam from her recent divorce, she discovers a human bone poking from the wall of a dry wash, the site of a former lake. Immediately, the wide cast of characters Chancellor voices all land on the same explanation: Jess Winters, the teenager who disappeared 20 years ago in 1991, though they take different routes to get there. Jess' mom, Maud, still delivers mail in Sycamore (or Syc-to-my-stomach, as Jess called it) and still thinks Jess wouldn't have run away, while many others who knew her have moved on, or not, while harboring varying degrees of guilt. Interspersed in Chancellor's meaty, suspenseful debut is Jess' story of the troubling year (itself preceded by another difficult year) leading up to her disappearance. The author handles this back-and-forth movement well, creating subtle connections among the fleshed-out Sycamore residents that readers will enjoy recognizing while waiting with them to discover the truth about the long-concealed skeleton.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

6. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     December 1, 2016
     

     When a new resident of Sycamore, AZ, discovers what look to be human remains in a bone-dry ravine, townsfolk assume they belong to a troubled teenager named Jess Winters who disappeared 18 years ago. Chancellor won the 2014 Prairie Schooner Book Prize for her story collection When Are You Coming Home? With a 75,000-copy first printing.

     Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

7. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     Starred review from April 15, 2017
     

     Chancellor's absorbing first novel begins quietly, quickly gains momentum, and ends explosively. Sixteen-year-old Jess Winters and her mother, Maud, arrive in the small desert town of Sycamore, AZ, in early 1991. Jess is lonely, with few school friends. She writes all her thoughts in a journal during her frequent walks into the desert night. Jess and Maud are close, but Jess is also fiercely independent. When she secretly agrees to a rendezvous with her friend Dani's father, Adam, the fallout during a Thanksgiving dinner among a gathering of friends ripples through the entire town. Jess swears that nothing happened, but she needs to get out into the desert and think. One dark rainy night, a few days before Christmas, she vanishes. The scandalous rumor and Jess's sudden disappearance ruin lives, and everyone resorts to finger pointing. Emotions simmer for the next 18 years, until a jogger discovers human remains in a wash near a trail. Shifting deftly between 1991 and 2009, Chancellor spins multiple threads of Jess's story as it affects everyone, especially Maud. VERDICT This gripping debut is a must for readers of literary fiction with an over-the-top final twist. [See Prepub Alert, 11/14/16.]--Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Grand Junction, CO

     Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

8. • premium: True
   • source:
   • content:

     April 15, 2017
     

     Chancellor's absorbing first novel begins quietly, quickly gains momentum, and ends explosively. Sixteen-year-old Jess Winters and her mother, Maud, arrive in the small desert town of Sycamore, AZ, in early 1991. Jess is lonely, with few school friends. She writes all her thoughts in a journal during her frequent walks into the desert night. Jess and Maud are close, but Jess is also fiercely independent. When she secretly agrees to a rendezvous with her friend Dani's father, Adam, the fallout during a Thanksgiving dinner among a gathering of friends ripples through the entire town. Jess swears that nothing happened, but she needs to get out into the desert and think. One dark rainy night, a few days before Christmas, she vanishes. The scandalous rumor and Jess's sudden disappearance ruin lives, and everyone resorts to finger pointing. Emotions simmer for the next 18 years, until a jogger discovers human remains in a wash near a trail. Shifting deftly between 1991 and 2009, Chancellor spins multiple threads of Jess's story as it affects everyone, especially Maud. VERDICT This gripping debut is a must for readers of literary fiction with an over-the-top final twist. [See Prepub Alert, 11/14/16.]--Donna Bettencourt, Mesa Cty. P.L., Grand Junction, CO

     Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

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A body, and an unsolved mystery, resurface in an Arizona town in this poignant page-turner: "Begins quietly, quickly gains momentum, and ends explosively." —Library Journal (starred review)
Out for a hike one scorching afternoon in Sycamore, Arizona, a newcomer to town stumbles across what appear to be human remains embedded in the wall of a dry desert ravine. As news of the discovery makes its way around town, Sycamore's longtime residents fear the bones may belong to Jess Winters, the teenage girl who disappeared suddenly some eighteen years earlier, an unsolved mystery that has soaked into the porous rock of the town and haunted it ever since. In the days it takes the authorities to make an identification, the residents rekindle stories, rumors, and recollections both painful and poignant as they revisit Jess's troubled history. In resurrecting the past, the people of Sycamore will find clarity, unexpected possibility, and a way forward for their...

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