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Also by Seré Prince Halverson:

All the Winters After, January 2017
Trade Size / e-Book (reprint)
All The Winters After, February 2016
Hardcover / e-Book
The Underside Of Joy, December 2012
Paperback
The Underside Of Joy, January 2012
Hardcover / e-Book

The Underside Of Joy
Seré Prince Halverson

E P Dutton
January 2012
On Sale: January 17, 2012
Featuring: Paige; Joe; Ella Beene
320 pages
ISBN: 0525952594
EAN: 9780525952596
Kindle: B005ERITC0
Hardcover / e-Book
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Romance

Set against the backdrop of Redwood forests and shimmering vineyards, Seré Prince Halverson's compelling debut tells the story of two women, bound by an unspeakable loss, who each claims to be the mother of the same two children.

To Ella Beene, happiness means living in the northern California river town of Elbow with her husband, Joe, and his two young children. Yet one summer day Joe breaks his own rule-never turn your back on the ocean-and a sleeper wave strikes him down, drowning not only the man but his many secrets.

For three years, Ella has been the only mother the kids have known and has believed that their biological mother, Paige, abandoned them. But when Paige shows up at the funeral, intent on reclaiming the children, Ella soon realizes there may be more to Paige and Joe's story. "Ella's the best thing that's happened to this family," say her close-knit Italian-American in-laws, for generations the proprietors of a local market. But their devotion quickly falters when the custody fight between mother and stepmother urgently and powerfully collides with Ella's quest for truth.

The Underside of Joy is not a fairy-tale version of stepmotherhood pitting good Ella against evil Paige, but an exploration of the complex relationship of two mothers. Their conflict uncovers a map of scars-both physical and emotional-to the families' deeply buried tragedies, including Italian internment camps during World War II and postpartum psychosis.

Weaving a rich fictional tapestry abundantly alive with the glorious natural beauty of the novel's setting, Halverson is a captivating guide through the flora and fauna of human emotion-grief and anger, shame and forgiveness, happiness and its shadow complement . . . the underside of joy.

Comments

5 comments posted.

Re: The Underside Of Joy

Thanks so much for having me on your blog and for finding a photo of such a
darling cabin. Just wanted to clarify that's not the one I stayed in, though I would
certainly LOVE to! And the landscape does have a similar feel to where I stayed.
(Sere Halverson 12:55pm March 21, 2012)

Congratulations on your debut release. Book descriptions I have read about The Underside of Joy sound wonderful. I look forward to reading the story.
(Mary C 4:34pm March 21, 2012)

Great post great right place right time memory.
(Lisa Kendall 9:55pm March 21, 2012)

Believe that anyone could benefit from a stay at a cabin to renew or refresh their life. What a wonderful setting for a retreat or a refuge to write.
(Joanne Hicks 10:41pm March 21, 2012)

Love your getaway cabin in the woods as a quiet place to write and meditate.
(Alyson Widen 7:32pm March 23, 2012)