Shelter in Place: A Novel

By: Alexander Maksik

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Synopsis: A troubled young man&’s bright future takes a strange turn when his mother commits murder in this &“riveting and disturbing novel&” of 1990s Washington State (The Guardian).A Guardian and San Francisco Chronicle Best Book of 2016. Joseph March, a twenty-one-year-old working-class kid from Seattle, is on top of the world. He has just graduated college and his limitless future beckons. But Joe&’s life suddenly implodes when he starts to suffer from the symptoms of bipolar disorder. Then, not long after, his mother kills a man she&’s never met with a hammer. Joe moves to White Pine, Washington, where his mother is serving time and his father has set up house. Followed there by his girlfriend, Tess Wolff, Joe&’s life falls into a daily rhythm of prison visits followed by beer and pizza at a local bar. Meanwhile, Joe&’s mother, Anne-Marie, is gradually becoming a local heroine. Many see her crime as a furious, exasperated act of righteous rebellion. Tess, too, has fallen under her spell. Spurred on by Anne-Marie&’s example, Tess enlists Joe in a secret, violent plan that will forever change their lives.Shelter in Place is a stylish novel about the hereditary nature of mental illness, the fleeting intensity of youth, the obligations of family, and the dramatic consequences of love.