Description

From award-winning author Jen Ferguson (Métis) comes the luminous story of a family steeped in grief and love.

When Tatum Nova Lambert boards a plane to Chamonix, a town in the French Alps, she has one half-formed plan: to drag her Michelin-star-winning dad home. Since her older sister Bronwyn’s death a year ago, Tate and her dad don’t talk. They barely even text. So when he doesn’t pick her up at the transit station like he said he would, it’s no surprise.
What is a complete and very unwelcome surprise? Her dad is unexpectedly living in Bronwyn’s apartment, and Tate discovers she’ll be sleeping in her sister’s bed—the one Bronwyn died in. In the apartment and at her dad’s restaurant, it’s hard to bear both her dad’s broken promises and her sister’s ghost.
While trying to untangle the secret life Tate’s sister left behind, Tate meets Agatha, a schedule-obsessed Olympic ski-jump hopeful, and Beetle, a pickpocket and general teenaged dirtbag. As the unlikely trio explore in the mountains’ shadow, Tate brings her distinct kind of chaos to everyone’s lives—all while she tries to figure out if she can forgive her dad and her sister for leaving her behind.

About the author(s)

Jen Ferguson is Michif/Métis and white, an activist, a feminist, an auntie, and an accomplice armed with a PhD. She believes writing, teaching and beading are political acts. She also has strong opinions about pastries and could essentially live off of pain au chocolat. Jen is a citizen of the Manitoba Métis Federation.

Reviews

"Ferguson presents a perceptive novel that combines grief, family estrangement, and self-discovery against the dazzling backdrop of the French Alps. A nuanced and deeply gratifying examination of loss." - Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

"[A] beautifully written story that digs with unflinching honesty into complex issues of grief and messy relationships. Tate angers and worries the adults in her life thanks to her keen perception of their human frailties even as she comes to understand what authentic selfhood means." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Like Glass paints a poignant portrait of grief through a Métis teen's captivating and chaotic determination to understand her sister's death and why her father refuses to leave the place where it happened. There is no fantasy here, but there is a familiar and near-mystic entropy in the foreboding undercurrent that Tate feels among the people who knew her sister and the places where she lived and died. Ferguson also adroitly depicts an eggshell-lined path to mending between an imperfect yet loving father and the only daughter he has left." - Shelf Awareness (starred review)

"This coming-of-age story is recommended, especially for readers in a time of transition who will relate to the flow and feelings of the protagonist, laced with themes of processing grief, developing unexpected emotions for new relations, and finding connectedness to culture while being far away from home." - School Library Journal

"This is a finely-wrought tale of sisterhood, grief, recovery, and the power of family. Along the way, characters that worm their way into Tatum’s heart come to life. Ferguson’s exemplary prose, which crafts stunning images of the surrounding mountainside and probes deep into Tatum’s mind. A warmhearted family story, full of color." - Booklist

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