Men and Dogs by Katie Crouch
This southern fiction book focuses on Hannah Legare, a woman who seemingly screwed up a happy life and career for reasons even she can't define. One issue is that she's never really accepted that her father died when he never returned from a fishing trip when she was a girl. As she returns from San Francisco back to the home of her mother and stepfather in Charleston, she finds herself reaching out to people in her past, revisiting memories, and asking questions that most near her have grown tired of. As we gradually learn about her unresolved grief, and see how it has affected the others in her family, we see the fear of loss and secret guilt has led to relationship issues for more than just Hannah. Her mother is in a loving marriage with a partner who cares deeply for her and her children, and her brother is a successful veterinarian. But her brother hasn't settled down, and has some issues with unresolved events in his past as well.
One gets a sense of the south from the novel and the culture of what is said and what isn't.
This novel has moments of humour, of sadness, and of hope
