Thereafter

Clarissa Brimsley, the narrator of Thereafter, is long dead, but she still has work to do. The object of her attention is her mother, Audrey. Sixty years after the fact, Audrey is stuck trying to make peace with the idea that she killed Clarissa in what was not entirely an accident in the home. She has never moved from the once-splendid house, now fallen into ruin, where Clarissa died. She has never truly stopped thinking of the girl.

After Audrey's sons ship her off to a nursing home, they sell the house to a young couple, Mag and Wald. They intend to rehab the old wreck, sell it, buy another and build a fortune. Those plans get derailed when Mag senses that the house is speaking to her. She finds a trunk of abandoned photo albums, filled with pictures of Audrey and Clarissa. In those photos Mag imagines a path to the future. She will make herself as happy as Audrey seems to be. She will have a child of her own.

Mag learns more of the truth about Audrey and Clarissa, but only after she is pregnant. Her efforts to ensure the safety of her child lead her into a complex relationship with Audrey. The old woman’s reluctant attempt to help Mag is complicated by unintended consequences and an unexpected choice.