Writer’s 1st novel navigates flood of hard truths

Climate change is backdrop for ex-teacher’s book

Boyd, an acutely perceptive young woman, lives in the Texas Hill Country. It’s never quite clear if she is merely sensitive or if there is something else going on, something surreal or supernatural.

What grounds the ambiguity for readers of “Things You Would Know If You Grew Up Around Here,” Nancy Wayson Dinan’s debut novel, is the insurmountable cataclysm of the Memorial Day floods, which devastated the Hill Country in 2015 and changed the landscape irrevocably.

Boyd has been able to read emotions in others since she was a little girl. While this quality piques the interest of others, they never pursue it to any great degree, ignoring, as most people do, talking about feelings or excavating traumas.

With each new perception of debilitating grief or sorrow in others, she acts to help, to figure out how to solve their problems or quell their sadness. But also with each new encounter, Boyd’s own strength is diminished. Her superpower is also her kryptonite.

Boyd has enjoyed a long friendship with Isaac, who keeps her at arm’s length because he wants to leave the Hill Country forever after he graduates from the University of Texas. He finds the provincial town where his father is obsessed with history and treasure-hunting to be insufferably dull.

Isaac himself pans for gold to help pay his tuition. It is the main reason he has returned to the Hill Country, and he cannot wait to leave again — even though he has complicated feelings for Boyd.

Boyd wants to stay right where she is. She lives with her