This haunting novel about the lasting effects of childhood trauma and the resulting choices we make for our children, will be published on May 1, 2020.
Purchase your copy here.
Back Cover Copy of Meadowlark:
After growing up in an austere spiritual compound, two teenagers, Simrin and Arjun, escape and go their separate ways. Years later, Simrin receives an email from Arjun. As they reconnect, Simrin learns that he has become the charismatic leader of Meadowlark, a commune in the Nevada desert that allows children to discover their “gifts.”
In spite of their fractured relationship, Simrin, a photojournalist, agrees to visit Meadowlark to document its story. She arrives at the commune with her five-year-old daughter in tow and soon realizes there is something disturbing about Arjun’s beliefs concerning children and their unusual abilities. When she discovers that the commune is in the midst of a criminal investigation, her unease grows deeper still.
As tensions with police heighten, Arjun’s wife begins to make plans of her own, fearing the exposure the investigation might bring for her and her children. Both mothers find themselves caught in a desperate situation, and as the conflict escalates, everyone involved must make painful—and potentially tragic—choices that could change their worlds forever.
Gripping and beautifully crafted, Meadowlark explores the power and danger of being extraordinary and what it means to see and be seen.
About Melanie Abrams:
Melanie Abrams’s debut novel, Playing, has been acquired in Italy, France, Germany, India, and Israel. She currently teaches writing at the University of California, Berkeley, and has also taught at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, George Washington University, and California State University, San Bernardino. She has a bachelor of arts in English and theatre from the University of California, Irvine, and a master of fine arts from UNC Greensboro. Born in Los Angeles, Abrams now lives in Oakland, California, with her husband, writer Vikram Chandra, and their daughters. In her spare time, Abrams loves photography, watching weird documentaries, and playing Candy Crush.
