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Advance Praise

“Cumberland is a richly imagined tale of family secrets, lies, and unspoken truths that threaten the lives of two sisters. The writing is lyrical and funny in the voice of Ansel whose coming-of-age could bring down the entire family and the town around them. This novel has a mythic undertone that moves the layers of the story with the rush of an incoming tide carrying deeper revelations than the characters are quite able to bear.

Gannon writes with a painter’s eye and a poet’s ear, and there’s no denying that she is bringing an original vision to her readers.”

—Jonis Agee, author of The River Wife and The Weight of Dreams

“Haunting, sensual, and captivating, Cumberland reminds me of Joy Williams’ work; its story of twin sisters—one of them reaching out toward life while the other struggles with illness—is as poetic and moody as adolescence itself. Cumberland is about the restorative powers of art and the sea, and I longed to linger in this world and to learn more from these wise and intuitive girls.”

—Timothy Schaffert, author of The Coffins of Little Hope and The Swan Gondola

“Cumberland is a remarkable novel that draws us into the intensely physical mystery of twinness. Fifteen-year-old Ansel comes into the urgency of her adolescent body while her paralyzed sister Isabel floats in an increasingly mystical world of art and longing. In vivid and musical prose, author Megan Gannon delivers mystery, suspense, a most unusual love triangle, and surprises that keep the pages turning as the twins’ embattled connection appears to reach the breaking point.”

—Mary Helen Stefaniak, author of The Turk and My Mother and The Cailiffs of Baghdad, Georgia

“Cumberland tells the story of twin sisters inhabiting two vastly different worlds. One comes of age, finding her way in love and in her relationship with the world, while the other, trapped in both body and circumstance, finally discovers a way to break the silence that seems to imprison her. In a pitch-perfect duet, Gannon illuminates the place their worlds overlap, how the sisters imagine and intuit their way into the other’s inner workings with unbearable intimacy. It’s a beautifully wrought tale about how the intricacies of our bonds can lead to the most specific betrayals and how the burden of familial wreckage can play out in our lives whether or not we fully understand it. And it’s a story about love and survival in the interdependent dynamic of two souls who were once one.

The story moves in a poet’s carriage. Gannon’s sentences are so full you’ll want to say them out loud just to feel them in your mouth; her poetry is at times nothing short of arresting. Cumberland is haunting and surprising. You will miss these girls when the book is done.”

—Rebecca Rotert, author of Last Night at the Blue Angel