Geographies of the Heart

DEBUT Summie follows her award-winning story collection To Lay To Rest Our Ghosts with the story of Sarah, to whom family is everything. She’s the older sister, the steady one, willing but also expected to be the caregiver for multiple generations. Sarah stays close to home, marrying young and letting go of plans for a career in the corporate world while younger sister Glennie stays singularly focused on becoming a doctor. Glennie is present for college, exams, medical school, and residency but painfully absent from holidays, birthdays, grandparents’ bedsides, and the everyday moments so important to Sarah. As Sarah experiences multiples losses and grief, she begins to feel that her relationship with Glennie is adrift and perhaps beyond repair. Patient and loving, Sarah’s husband, Al, is her anchor, but the sibling relationship takes center stage. When Sarah and Al make a decision changing their family forever, the tension with Glennie must be confronted.