The Ash Family

When a young woman leaves her family to join a secret off-the-grid community headed by an enigmatic leader,she discovers that belonging comes with a deadly costin this ΓÇ£stunning debutΓÇ¥ (The New Yorker) ΓÇ£perfect for fans of Philip RothΓÇÖs American Pastoral and the film Martha Marcy May MarleneΓÇ¥ (Bookliststarred review). At nineteenBerie encounters a seductive and mysterious man at a bus station near her home in North Carolina. Shut off from the people around hershe finds herself compelled by his promise of a new life. He ferries her into a place of order and chaos: the Ash Family farm. Thereshe joins a community living off the fertile land of the mountainsbound together by high ideals and through relationships she canΓÇÖt untangle. BerieΓÇönow renamed HarmonyΓÇörenounces her old life and settles into her new one on the farm. She begins to make friends. And then they start to disappear. ΓÇ£An excellent debutMolly Dektar probes life in a cult with a masterful handexcavating the troubled mind of a young womanΓÇ¥ (Publishers Weekly). The Ash Family explores what we will sacrifice in the search for happinessand the beautiful and grotesque power of the human spirit as it seeks its ultimate place of belonging. ΓÇ£A captivating and haunting taleΓÇ¥ (New York Journal of Books).