“What do you think? You don't understand. You'll never know how much. ” Barbara Scot's memoir begins with a trunk full of memories and her mother's cryptic letters about a marriage unraveling. Like a mystery detective, the author searches for the truth, which takes her back to the scene of a tragedy—to the farm her family lost and the close-knit and secretive community she left behind. In uncovering the secrets of her family, Scot comes to understand her own failed marriage. 

Barbara Scot is author of The Violet Shyness of Their Eyes: Notes from Nepal and The Stations of Still Creek. She lives with her husband in Portland, Oregon.