The Wishing Box

Description

The Wishing Box is a literary, sometimes comic, sometimes magical first novel about the surprising and unintended consequences of getting what you ask for. Julia, an almost-30 single mom whose life is mostly together, lives in Oakland with her seven-year-old son. One day she and her sister create a wishing box and half-seriously hold a ceremony to bring the return of their father, who had abandoned the family when they were young. Astonishingly, he does come back and even reunites with their mother, but Julia's life has already and abruptly moved in a new direction and she has disappeared. This unusual and engaging family is the heart of a novel about appearances and disappearances, trying to control the future and explain the past, and the legacies passed on from one generation to another.

Dashka Slater lived in Massachusetts and Oregon before settling in Oakland, California, where she is a reporter for the East Bay Express. Her poetry and nonfiction has appeared in a variety of magazines and journals. This is her first book.