In Search of Us

The author of the beloved Love Letters to the Dead returns with a sweeping multi-generational story of a single mother and her biracial daughter, each at age seventeen.

To seventeen-year-old Angie, who is mixed-race, Marilyn is her hardworking, devoted white single mother. But Marilyn was once young, too. When she was seventeen, Marilyn fell in love with Angie's father, James, who was African-American. But Angie's never met him, and Marilyn has always told her he died before she was born.

When Angie discovers evidence of an uncle she's never met she starts to wonder: What if her dad is still alive, too?

So she sets off on a journey to find him, hitching a ride to Los Angeles from her home in New Mexico with her ex-boyfriend, Sam. Along the way, she uncovers some hard truths about herself, her mother, and what truly happened to her father.

Alternating between Angie's present-day journey and Marilyn's romance set against the backdrop of LA in the '90s, the stories of In Search of Us intertwine to create a powerful tale about secrets and lies, race and identity, and mothers and daughters.

Praise for In Search of Us:

"A rare and special book. Part mother-daughter love story, part road trip journey, part compelling mystery, and one hundred percent beautiful, spellbinding tearjerker. I’m in love with every page."
—Jennifer Niven, New York Times bestselling author of All the Bright Places and Holding Up the Universe

"A masterful work of fiction. Exploring race and mother and daughter relationships, this novel is also one of the most tender and authentic takes on first love that I have ever read."
—Jennifer Mathieu, author of MOXIE