Little Broken Things by Nicole Baart

 

Tender descriptions of Minnesota lake picnics, boathouse romances and childhood memories cloak simmering shame and mysterious motives in this slow unraveling of community secrets, Little Broken Things, from author Nicole Baart.

When Quinn’s sister Nora brings a troubled child to the door of her small cottage, telling her not to tell anyone — even their mother and brother who live nearby–the questions burn and linger, and the answers don’t come easily.

Whose child is she? Who are they protecting her from? Which male figures can be trusted and which cannot?

With Nora skittish about unknown forces, and Quinn forced to hold down the fort with a child who is a virtual stranger, the sisters have to rely more on trust and instinct than facts.
The past eventually catches up to the present in this everyone-thinks-they-know-everyone small town novel, where nothing can stay buried forever, even pieces of the old sunken steamship on the silty bottom of Key Lake.