Gwendolen Gross is the author of five critically acclaimed novels, including The Orphan Sister and The Other Mother. She has worked with porcupines and kinkajous as a science demonstrator, on mountain tops as a naturalist, as an editor, opera singer, writing instructor, and mom. She lives in Northern New Jersey with her husband, daughter, and son.
"Gwendolen Gross creates characters so familiar they could live
next door. Her new novel, When She Was Gone, reflects a perfect
balance of darkness and intricate struggles, woven together with
hope and redemption. Abigail, Reeva, and Mr. Leonard's voices form
some of the most powerful and beautiful language I've read in quite
a while. Mix in a nail-biting plot and you have one outstanding
read."--Ann Hite "award-winning author of Ghost on Black
Mountain"
"Gwendolen Gross uses the disappearance of a young woman to tell
the story of a community in crisis, and her gaze is both
unflinching and surprisingly tender. When She Was Gone is a dark
but elegantly crafted book, the tension building toward a climax
that promises redemption to its wayward characters."--Holly Goddard
Jones "author of The Next Time You See Me"
"Similar in title and theme to Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, Gross's
fifth novel feels more genuine in that her characters are less
contrived. Gross deftly depicts the dread-filled unfolding of a
mother's realization that her child is missing and clearly portrays
how a crisis of this nature unearths alliances and fissures within
a community."--Library Journal
"What happens behind the closed doors of a neighborhood, and beyond
the facades of the people who live there? Gwendolen Gross has the
sharp insight of a documentarian, turning her lens on each house of
a frightened town after a college-bound girl goes missing. Full of
heart but free of sentimentality, When She Was Gone shows the
sinews of belonging and not-belonging that bind a
community."--Nichole Bernier "author of The Unfinished Work of
Elizabeth D"
Lovely, bright 17-year-old Linsey Hart vanishes a few weeks before she is to leave for college. The next seven days are spent in frantic efforts to find Linsey by retracing her movements and interactions with others. Linsey's mother, Abigail, and stepfather, Frank, had been negotiating with Linsey's father on how to share in seeing Linsey off to Cornell. The night before Linsey's disappearance, the quirky piano teacher neighbor, Mr. Leonard, overheard Linsey breaking up with Timmy, her high school love. Reeva, ruler of the neighborhood clique, had been upset that Linsey failed to show up for her babysitting job but then appeared rather more concerned that Linsey might have seen her with her lover. Geo, an observant 11-year-old loner, had been doing what he always did, keeping to himself and making collages of the photographs he took of his neighbors. Verdict Similar in title and theme to Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl, Gross's fifth novel (after The Orphan Sister) feels more genuine in that her characters are less contrived. Gross deftly depicts the dread-filled unfolding of a mother's realization that her child is missing and clearly portrays how a crisis of this nature unearths alliances and fissures within a community.-Sheila M. Riley, Smithsonian Inst. Libs., Washington, DC (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
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