THE WILDERWOMEN by Ruth Emmie Lang

Lang, Ruth Emmie St. Martin’s (336 pp.) $27.99 | Nov. 15, 2022 978-1-2502-4691-2

Estranged siblings embark on a supernaturally guided search for their absent mom. Five years ago, when Zadie Wilder was 18 and her half sister, Finn, was 12, their mother, Nora, left their Texas home and vanished. Finn went to live with loving foster parents, while Zadie had to fend for herself. The girls grew apart, but now that Finn has graduated high school, they hope to reconnect during a celebratory vacation. Zadie arranges to borrow a friend’s Galveston condo, as she is secretly pregnant with her ex’s baby and wants nothing more than to sit on the beach and get lost in a good book. Then Finn experiences an “echo” of Nora while visiting the zoological gardens. Though Finn has been an antenna for left-behind memories since she was 8, they’re usually just meaningless fragments: “the sound of a doorbell, the drag of water running through hair, the sour scent of newly laid mulch.” This, however, is the most comprehensive echo she has felt and the first she has found left by her mom. Almost simultaneously, Zadie—a reluctant psychic whose premonitions come as intrusive thoughts—is struck by a cryptic phrase: “The sky is full of birds.” Finn suggests they spend the week searching for Nora by following her memories like breadcrumbs. Zadie protests, having never forgiven Nora for leaving, but ultimately relents; even a crappy road trip beats being alone. Wryly funny and tinged with melancholy, Lang’s beguiling tale unfolds via a prismatic third-person narrative that frequently flashes back to contextualize Nora’s disappearance. Exquisitely drawn characters imbue Lang’s unconventional plot with verisimilitude and heart, inspiring readers to ponder whether the world is stranger and more beautiful than it appears.