Marjorie Celona

A foster child who has been shuffled through the system after being abandoned at the YMCA as a baby wonders about her birth family and the reasons she was given up, questions that lead to the tragic story of her flawed and desperate mother. A first novel.

A Novel

“A gorgeous, moving debut.…Marjorie Celona writes with acute sensitivity to how a child sees her world and renders a character readers will love in all her glorious self-doubt” (The Boston Globe). “Y. That perfect letter. The wishbone, fork in the road, empty wineglass. The question we ask over and over. Why?…My life begins at the Y.” So opens Marjorie Celona’s highly acclaimed, exquisite debut about a wise-beyond-her-years foster child abandoned as a newborn on the doorstep of the local YMCA. Bounced between foster homes, Shannon endures abuse and neglect until she finally finds stability with Miranda, a kind but no-nonsense single mother. Yet Shannon defines life on her own terms, refusing to settle down and continually longing to uncover her roots—especially the stubborn question of why her mother would abandon her on the day she was born. Brilliantly and hauntingly interwoven with Shannon’s story is the tale of her mother, Yula, a girl herself, who is facing a desperate fate in the hours and days leading up to Shannon’s birth. As past and present converge, Y tells an unforgettable story of identity, inheritance, and, ultimately, forgiveness. Celona’s ravishingly beautiful novel, where “questions are not so much answered as extended” (The New York Times), offers a deeply affecting look at the choices we make and what it means to be a family.

Y A Novel

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