When you end up back home, there’s always baggage to unpack.
Rowan Darling, an adrift thirty-three-year-old, owns a record store on a run-down block in Philadelphia.Then news of his estranged brother’s death forces a return to Maybee, Illinois, the hometown Rowan left in the dust years ago. Rowan’s plan? Dart in for the funeral, support his mother, then disappear just as quickly. Things to avoid? Margot Beckett, his childhood sweetheart, and Skid Hall, his former best friend who stole Margot and married her. Together, they’ve become the town’s “it” couple.
Unfortunately, as Rowan’s flash visit spirals beyond his control, he must face everything he’s dodged for too long. The woman he can’t have. The memory of the brother he thought he knew. His own dwindling prospects back in Philadelphia.
But Rowan also starts to see things more clearly—what’s worth fighting for, what he can let go of, how long he can keep running, and if maybe Maybee can be home again.
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Who would’ve thought a book about a funeral could be this funny and hopeful? Abramowitz tells the story of two brothers—one recently drowned, one alive but floundering—with the perfect balance of levity and earnestness. Full of surprises, endearing characters, and Talking Heads references, Darling at the Campsite is part homegoing story, part family drama, and part music nerdfest. Garden State meets High Fidelity, set in the present day. I could not put it down.
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Suzy Krause, author of Sorry I Missed You