Sycamore

On a scorching afternoon in a small Arizona town, a newcomer hiking the desert finds what may be human remains baked into a ravine wall and the town's fragile calm begins to crack. News of the bones wakes the unresolved disappearance of teenager Jess Winters eighteen years earlier, and as investigators try to identify the fragments the town churns with rumor, regret, and old loyalties. Told in intimate, shifting voices, the novel follows residents as they reckon with grief, desire, and betrayal while searching for ways to forgive and be forgiven. Evocative and quietly propulsive, it is a coming of age and a mystery about how small places hold big secrets and how chosen family can be the ground for renewal.

~ Included for queer readers and allies who cherish nuanced small town stories where grief, desire, and the slow rebuilding of found family illuminate resilience and belonging ~