Carry the One: Library Edition

"Anshaw has a deft touch with the events of ordinary life, giving them heft and meaning without being ponderous." ---Publishers Weekly Starred Review

"Renee Raudman provides an intuitive narration that escorts the listener into the future that follows that fateful night, recounting sexual encounters, broken marriages, friends supporting friends, internalized guilt, joys, and sorrows." ---AudioFile

Carry the One begins in the hours following Carmen's wedding reception, when a car filled with stoned, drunk, and sleepy guests accidently hits and kills a girl on a dark, country road. For the next twenty-five years, those involved, including Carmen and her brother and sister, connect and disconnect and reconnect with each other and their victim. As one character says, "When you add us up, you always have to carry the one."Through friendships and love affairs; marriage and divorce; parenthood, holidays, and the modest tragedies and joys of ordinary days, Carry the One shows how one life affects another and how those who thrive and those who self-destruct are closer to each other than we'd expect. Deceptively short and simple in its premise, this novel derives its power and appeal from the author's beautifully precise use of language; her sympathy for her very recognizable, flawed characters; and her persuasive belief in the transforming forces of time and love.