The Daughter Ship

This irreverent debut delivers a headlong human comedy of trauma and triumph, narrated by the concealed inner selves of a woman on the brink. Katherine, a lost creative soul and the mother of two lovely teenagers with her strapping provider of a husband, has struggled into her forties with compulsive self-harm and intermittent fears of sexual intercourse. This brisk, mesmerizing version of her life is told in alternating short chapters by Truitt, Star, and Smooshed Bug--her inner children, each with their particular strategy for coping with Katherine's past at the hands of a hopeless mother and a terrifying, seductive father. Several of her female ancestors, Confederate widows and their daughters, who've imposed a legacy of racism and damage on her bloodline, also join the telling. The assembled ghosts and contenders for Katherine's ear are gathered in a rusting WWII submarine off the coast of Virginia Beach where her childhood shame unfolded, whether she remembers it or not. The truth of her life is, quite literally, submerged. Will they surface with it? Will they protect her from it, or deliver it to her? This unforgettable chorus of charming selves, battling over Katherine's wellbeing, is unified by their hope for her future, as they collaborate to shape a personal narrative like no other we've experienced in fiction.