Some Things That Stay

Tamara Anderson was in third grade when she found out most people stay in the same house for more than a year. Until then she thought everyone picked up and moved on a regular basis, crossing the country, leaving behind people and bedrooms and belongings. Now she€s turning fifteen, and she wants to stay in Mayville, New York. At first glance, there isn€t much to stick around for. In the tarpaper house across the road there are the Murphys, the Baptist family who upset Tamara€s atheist parents by inviting her to church. In the pasture there€s Edith the cow. And up in the attic there€s the ghost of the boy who used to live here, or at least that€s what Tamara suspects. But this time Tamara is putting her foot down, and planting it€¦

Taking us into the heart and mind of an unforgettable young girl, and a unique corner of a rural 1950s America, Sarah Willis presents a €œheartfelt first novel [in which] the characters are so vivid and rounded they produce a reflected happiness in the reader.€ (The Miami Herald)