num_pages: 400
description: It's rare to find such a polished debut and Dower is a masterful storyteller to watch. -- the Globe and Mail.Think Mad Men but even madder. -- the Toronto StarStony River New Jersey 1955: On a sweltering June afternoon Linda Wise and Tereza Dobra witness a disturbing scene. A pale pretty girl who looks about their age is taken from Crazy Haggertys house by two uniformed policemen. Everyone in Stony River thought Crazy Haggerty lived alone. The pale pretty girl is about to enter an alien world and as Tereza and Linda try to make sense of what theyve seen theyre unaware their own lives will soon be shattered as well. Set in a decade we tend to think of as a more innocent time Stony River shows in dramatic and unexpected ways how perilous it was to come of age in the 1950s with its absent mothers controlling fathers biblical injunctions teenaged longing and small-town pretence. The threat of sexual violence is all around: angry fathers at home dirty boys in the neighbourhood strange men in strange cars a dead girl and another gone missing.An engrossing novel about growing up finding your voice and forgiving your family Stony River is a brilliant story from a remarkable new Canadian voice.
language: English
title: Stony River
publisher: Penguin Canada