The Art of Crash Landing: A Novel - Softcover

DeCarlo, Melissa

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0062416855 ISBN 13: 9780062416858

Publisher: Harper Large Print, 2015

Synopsis

From a bright new talent comes this debut novel about a young woman who travels for the first time to her mother’s hometown, and gets sucked into the mystery that changed her family forever

Mattie Wallace has really screwed up this time. Broke and knocked up, she’s got all her worldly possessions crammed into six giant trash bags, and nowhere to go. Try as she might, Mattie can no longer deny that she really is turning into her mother, a broken alcoholic who never met a bad choice she didn’t make.

When Mattie gets news of a possible inheritance left by a grandmother she’s never met, she jumps at this one last chance to turn things around. Leaving the Florida Panhandle, she drives eight hundred miles to her mother’s birthplace—the tiny town of Gandy, Oklahoma. There, she soon learns that her mother remains a local mystery—a happy, talented teenager who inexplicably skipped town thirty-five years ago with nothing but the clothes on her back. But the girl they describe bears little resemblance to the damaged woman Mattie knew, and before long it becomes clear that something terrible happened to her mother, and it happened here. The harder Mattie digs for answers, the more obstacles she encounters. Giving up, however, isn’t an option. Uncovering what started her mother’s downward spiral might be the only way to stop her own.

Hilarious, gripping, and unexpectedly wise, The Art of Crash Landing is a poignant novel from an assured new voice.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Broke and knocked up, Mattie Wallace has all her worldly possessions crammed into six giant trash bags, and nowhere to go. Try as she might, Mattie can't deny that she's turning into her late mother, a broken alcoholic who never met a bad choice she didn't make.

When Mattie gets news of an inheritance left by a grandmother she's never met, she jumps at this one last chance to turn things around. She leaves the Florida Panhandle for her mother's birthplace: the tiny town of Gandy, Oklahoma. There, she learns that her mother remains a local mystery—a happy, talented teenager who inexplicably skipped town thirty-five years ago with nothing but the clothes on her back. But the girl they describe bears little resemblance to the damaged woman Mattie knew, and soon it becomes clear that something terrible happened to her mother. And if Mattie can discover what started her mother's downward spiral, perhaps she can figure out a way to stop her own.

About the Author:

Melissa DeCarlo was born and raised in Oklahoma City, and has worked as an artist, graphic designer, grant writer, and even (back when computers were the size of refrigerators) a computer programmer. The Art of Crash Landing is her first novel. Melissa now lives in East Texas with her husband and a motley crew of rescue animals.

About this edition

• Publisher: Harper Large Print
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 0062416855
• ISBN 13: 9780062416858
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 544