Mr. Splitfoot

Ruth and Nat are seventeen. They are orphans. And they are developing an uncanny ability to talk to the dead. These talents bring them into the orbit of Mr. Bell, a con man with his own mystical interests. Together they embark on an unexpected journey that connects meteor sites, utopian communities, lost mothers, and the scar that maps its way across Ruth s face. Decades later and after years of absence, Ruth visits her niece, Cora. But while Ruth used to speak to the dead, she now won t speak at all. It seems, though, that she has arrived just in time. Cora is in trouble single and pregnant and not sure what is in store for her. Aunt Ruth has a plan, even if she s not telling. Cora knows she must follow. Their journey becomes an odyssey. But where is Ruth taking them?Where has she been all these years? Why won t she talk?And who or what is hidden in the woods at the end of the road? A subversive ghost story that is as haunting in its examination of family, motherhood, and love as it is in its conjuring of the otherworldly, Mr. Splitfootwill set your heart racing and your imagination aflame. Unwinding in an ingenious structure, it tracks two women in two times as they march toward a mysterious, explosive reckoning. A contemporary gothic, it is a truly fantastic novel in which the blurring of natural and supernatural creates a stirring, visceral conclusion. * *Kirkus Reviews, starred review"