Right Where You Left Me

July 24, 2017
Seventeen-year-old Lottie Lang has always felt that her globetrotting, disaster-chasing journalist father, Jeremiah, is the glue keeping her family together. Her mother, Valentina, never seemed to recover from the death of her first child, Lena, at 11 months, or from the stroke she had while giving birth to Lottie. When Jeremiah is kidnapped by extremists in Ukraine, Lottie believes that she may lose her mother to depression. Devlin (Tell Me Something Real) relies heavily on Russian folklore to give Lottie an uncommonly mature perspective (“She worries I was born with a curse, that I was born a potercha, the troubled spirit of a dead child.... I wonder if she’s Umershey Materi. The Dead Mother”). Jeremiah’s kidnapping is the catalyst that allows Lottie and her mother to finally have a frank conversation about their relationship: Lottie spent her childhood believing she was a consolation prize for Lena, while Valentina tried desperately not to hold her child too close. Though the initial setup is fraught with potential problems, Devlin carefully orchestrates the plot so the pieces fall together almost too perfectly. Ages 14–up. Agent: Faye Bender, Book Group

When Charlotte's father, a foreign correspondent, is taken prisoner in Russia while on the job, she'll do anything in her power to save him, even if it means defying the FBI. Narrator Amy Melissa Bentley balances all the emotions Charlotte experiences as she deals with a new crush, a wavering friendship, and a difficult relationship with her mother, all while hoping her father returns safely. Bentley creates a unique voice for each of the different characters, bringing the dialogue to life. Listeners will relate to Charlotte's woes and find a new understanding of the risks that journalists take to keep the world informed. M.D. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine