NEVER COMING BACK

A young woman returns to her small-town Adirondack Mountain home to care for her mother—whose memory is declining, just as secrets from her past begin to surface—in this tender novel by bestselling author Alison McGhee.
When Clara Winter left her rural Adirondack Mountain town for college, she never looked back. Her mother, Tamar, a fiercely independent but loving woman who raised Clara on her own, all but pushed her out the door, forcing Clara to build a new life for herself, far from her roots, far from her high school boyfriend, far from the life she has always known.

Now more than a decade has passed, and Clara, a successful writer, has been summoned home. Tamar has become increasingly forgetful, and can no longer live on her own. But just as her mother's memory is beginning to slip away, Clara's questions are building. Why was Tamar so insistent that Clara leave home, all those years ago? Just what secrets was she hiding? If Clara, too, carries inside her the gene for early onset Alzheimer's, what does that mean for her own future?

NEVER COMING BACK is an urgent, poignant story of a mother and daughter seeking connection at the very moment they seem to be slipping away from each other. With great tenderness and humanity, Alison McGhee tells the story of a young woman finding her way in life, determined to know her mother—and by extension herself—before it's too late.

Alison McGhee is a bestselling author of books for children and adults. Her children's books Someday, Little Boy, Bye-Bye Crib, Always and A Very Brave Witch have been New York Times bestsellers. Her award-winning adult novels include Was It Beautiful?, Falling Boy, Rainlight, and the Pulitzer Prize nominee Shadow Baby.