Elita A novel

Lunstrum's (What We Do with the Wreckage, 2018) first novel, following three collections of short fiction, is an atmospheric literary mystery that unfolds in the remote Puget Sound islands during the 1950s. University linguistics specialist Bernadette Baston is called upon to help Atalanta, a nonspeaking "wild child" found wandering Elita Island. Bernadette is drawn to Atalanta's case, but as she digs deeper, unsettling questions emerge. Who are Atalanta's parents, and how long has the girl been surviving on her own? The small, insular community is reluctant to help, harboring secrets that Bernadette senses could unlock the truth. Meanwhile, Bernadette's estranged husband reappears, forcing her to confront her conflicting roles as a mother and a professional woman at a time when society expects her to choose between the two. As the investigation heats up, Bernadette is drawn into a whirlwind of turmoil. With themes of survival, woman's autonomy, and hidden truths, Elita combines elements of historical fiction, mystery, and suspense. Lunstrum's complex characters, ruggedly wild setting, and depiction of small-town isolation make this a gripping read.

Set in 1951 around Puget Sound, this debut novel centers on a woman and a girl who, independently of each other and in vastly different circumstances, are abandoned. While enjoying their lunch break outdoors on Elita Island, home to a federal penitentiary, two prison guards encounter a feral child who appears to be around 12, but is actually 17. Because the girl, who's being called Atalanta Doe, doesn't speak, the social worker assigned to the case is elated when she hears about Professor Bernadette Baston: "A woman child development specialist! How interesting, I thought," she tells Bernadette when they meet. Bernadette, a curiosity as a woman in the psychology department at Seattle's state university, specializes in language acquisition, but explains that she's a scholar and can't be expected to teach Atalanta to talk. Nevertheless, over the course of her visits with the girl, Bernadette becomes determined to learn how Atalanta got to the island, which will mean asking the area's residents unwelcome questions. As it happens, Bernadette, too, knows something about surviving on one's own: Her husband left four years earlier, when their daughter was an infant. Lunstrum builds her fathomlessly rich plot with sentences that suggest she has, as Bernadette describes a novelist's job, "taken a polishing cloth to the surface of every word." (Readers should be patient with early chapters that minutely recount what Bernadette acknowledges is "the teeming wildness" of her thoughts.) The novel succeeds as both a mystery and a pitiless look at the burdens that have historically been particular to female parents and professionals. As Bernadette observes a Tacoma detective's lack of affect, she accepts that his "flat, stone-faced approach is a privilege she'll never have." Immensely satisfying as both a mystery and an unblinkered look at working motherhood. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.