Back Creek
Back Creek
Back Creek
Leslie Goetsch
"It’s the summer of 1975. Eighteen-year-old Grace Barnett knows she should be preparing to leave for college in September. But a strange Memorial Day boating accident on the creek near her Virginia home―she’s the only witness to the apparent suicide―kicks off a series of events that will define her family’s future as well as her emerging view of life.On the very day of the victim’s funeral, Grace’s older sister, Lillian, absent from the family for the past five years, suddenly reappears. Unfortunately, it is also the day Grace’s mother chooses to quietly walk out on her family, leaving Grace to act as the mediator between her prodigal sister and her badly wounded father.As the summer wears on, Grace finds herself thinking less about college and more about how to mend the rifts in her family. She turns to her neighbor, Cal, a recently returned Vietnam vet, to help sort through her problems. After weathering her sister’s unexpected return and pregnancy, her father’s budding alcoholism, and Cal’s war-induced neurosis, Grace decides to set off to rural North Carolina with the intention of bringing her mother back home."

Book Details

Genre: 

  • Fiction

Age Level: 

  • Mature Young Adult
Profile Picture

It's 1975. Eighteen-year-old Grace Barnett is overwhelmed by the situations presented to her in what becomes one of the most important summers of her life. Waking up one morning, she witnesses a deadly boat crash in the creek behind her house. As though this wasn't enough of a trauma, the accidental nature of the crash comes into question. Soon, many people have come to the unspoken conclusion that Tommy White, the man who died in the crash, may have crashed the boat on purpose.

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