The Fifty-First State

Seventeen-year-old Josh Corson is plodding through a regular day at school when his father and mother are killed in a car crash, changing his life forever. Suddenly an orphan, Josh finds himself leaning into an unlikely caregiver: his half-sister Hallie, who, years ago, traded their family’s farm in southern New Jersey for a glamorous life in New York City and never looked back. Together again in their childhood home, with the farm going to ruins around them, Josh and Hallie must learn to be a family – and Hallie must face a devastating truth she can no longer escape. Meanwhile, Josh meets three young women who offer tantalizing respite from his grieving but bring their own complexities to Josh’s already uncertain path.

Borders has created an intimate portrait of a patched-together family reeling from losses both past and present, searching for footing in an evocative South Jersey landscape that is as beautiful as it is quietly toxic. Hallie’s emotional awakening and Josh’s touching coming-of-age are deftly handled and make this a compelling addition to Engine Books’s accomplished list.