Liquid, Fragile, Perishable

Praise

An Oprah Daily Most Anticipated Reads of 2024

“Told through interlocking narratives, this poignant debut novel captures a year in the life of a small Vermont town—but don’t let the pastoral locale fool you; this book is anything but sleepy. Moving effortlessly from the steamy to the heartbreaking, the novel handles themes such as poverty, first love, drug abuse, unplanned pregnancy, and lust with refreshing nuance.” – Oprah Daily

“Kuebler’s prose is visual, astute, and rich. Family drama, mystery, and subtle foreshadowing carry readers headlong to the conclusion. A novel for readers who relish a sense of place, quirky characters, and intertwined stories … Featuring many teen characters, this will be of interest for its coming-of-age topics, including friend groups, parental control, and romance.” – Booklist

“Kuebler’s skillful, minimalist prose carries this small-town story from tranquil beginning to perilous end. An intricate, slow-burning patchwork of a debut novel.” – STARRED review, Kirkus

“I’ve spent my life in towns like this, and so so much rings true—hard, sweet, right.” —Bill McKibben, author Radio Free Vermont

“Kuebler deftly weaves multiple perspectives into a tapestry showing one bittersweet year in the collective life of a small northeastern town. Her wonderful characters, beautiful landscapes, and portrait of rural life will stay with me.” —Lydia Kiesling, author of Mobility

“Carolyn Kuebler’s superb ensemble narrative features post office clerks and recluses, yearning teens and missionary parents, budding criminals and trusts funders who all inhabit a beautiful, struggling Vermont town. When the plot sets a romance and disappearance into motion, someone is to blame, but who? Part of Kuebler’s magic is that she offers no easy answers to this question, and leaves you pondering instead what will happen to these people, and what it takes for our rural communities to thrive and endure.” —Maria Hummel, author of Goldenseal

“A true-to-life, richly detailed American tale in the tradition of Sherwood Anderson, Willa Cather, and Thornton Wilder. Carolyn Kuebler deftly weaves together, in fast-moving episodes, the lives of four teenagers and their families who come to reckon with their differences when one of their children tragically disappears. Kuebler’s genius as a writer is to make readers believe that the harrowing story of Glenville, Vermont is both their own and one essential for our time.”  —Michael Collier, author of The Wild Mountain