Little Lovely Things

February 25, 2019
Debut author Connolly explores the emotional devastation that plays out after a woman’s young daughters mysteriously disappear. In 1991 Chicago, medical resident Claire Rawlings is driving her daughters to their daycare when she feels nauseous and stops at a gas station and rushes to the rest room and passes out. When she regains consciousness, Claire discovers that her car and her daughters, four-year-old Andrea and 15-month-old Lily, are gone. Police have few clues about who may have taken the girls. The impact on the lives of Claire and her husband, Glen, is shattering, and their marriage begins to unravel. As years pass and Claire can’t shake the guilt about feeling responsible for the disappearance of her daughters, she questions why Glen has never voiced his blame of her. Claire eventually meets with Jay White, a drifter who has given police some information that has assisted them in their investigation of the abduction of Lily and Andrea; Claire believes he may have psychic powers, leaving her with a sense of hope that her daughters are still alive. Connolly’s lyrical writing style and the fast-paced narrative draw in the reader right away. This is a riveting novel bolstered by its flawed, believable characters. Agent: Heather Karpas, ICM Partners.

March 1, 2019
Claire Rawlings is more than overwhelmed when she pulls into the parking lot of a gas station and races into the bathroom. She is in her medical residency, working all-nighters, and mothering two-year-old Lily and four-year-old Andrea. Her body responded violently to a hepatitis vaccine, required for her medical work, and when she returns from the bathroom, her car is gone, with her children inside. What follows is Claire's journey to hell and back, as time ticks by with no trace of the kids. The narrative flips from Claire's perspective to that of Moira, the Irish traveling woman who spirits Claire's children away, and then to Jay, a Native American who becomes inexplicably connected to Claire and the girls. Debut author Connolly's poetic sensibility shines through the prose in scenes that shimmer with emotion. This novel is a tragedy more than anything?it is not for the faint of heart?but hope is present throughout, a beacon carrying the reader to the final pages. Fans of Clare O'Donohue's Missing Persons (2011) will enjoy this one.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)