North of Autumn

Following the loss of both her adopted mother and then grandmother, teen Zoē embarks on a new life with her uncle Sean, moving from Maine to Michigan, where Sean plans to begin a business partnership with an old friend. Along the way, they become sidetracked when a mountain storm causes a breakdown of their car just outside rural Brookway, Vermont. The eccentric widowed Fiona and her teenage daughter give refuge to the stranded travelers, allowing them to stay as long as is needed to repair the car. But what starts as a couple days, turns into weeks, as Sean seeks to repay their kindness by fixing up the rental home and Zoē’s reluctance to leave. With Sean and Fiona slowly falling for one another, Zoē navigates her increasing obsessive-compulsive tendencies and new friendships, coming to terms with her loves and losses through visions, dreams, and poetic storytelling, at times unable to distinguish fantasy from reality. NORTH OF AUTUMN, set in the same fictional town as Patrick Gillespie’s first novel TINY HOUSE, BIG MOUNTAIN, blends magical realism with acceptance, emotional balance, and love through the eyes of family and friendship.