Book overview
Hamlet, Vermont. When teenage Bissie rescues an injured turtle on the day of her brother Jeremy's funeral, she believes she's found a chance to save a life and restore all that's falling apart in hers.
Her family, already fractured over an inability to understand Jeremy's neurodivergence, is on the brink of breakdown, and Bissie has now become "the girl with the dead brother" at school. Her swimming career is tanking, and her friendship with Savannah-a girl with her own family trauma-is raising eyebrows around town.
When Turtle appears in Bissie's dreams and a box of Jeremy's secret sketchbooks surfaces, Bissie begins to question everything she's always believed about the boy her brother wanted to be, notions of friendship and intimacy, and whether Turtle had a plan all along.
Traversing the personalities and places of a small town in Vermont, Undiscovered Country is a coming-of-age story with a dash of magical realism. Sharp, tender, and darkly funny, the novel asks thought-provoking questions about the power of dreams, the danger of expectations, and the absurdity of striving for normal.
