Either the Beginning or the End of the World

Sofie, nearly seventeen, lives in coastal New Hampshire with her fisherman father. She's Scottish on her father's side and Cambodian on her mother's, though she rejects her Cambodian heritage ("I am not Cambodian…I have no past. I have no ancestors…I make myself from scratch every day"), angry at her mother for abandoning them when Sofie was a child. Early in the book, Sofie meets Lucas, a troubled young medic recently returned from Afghanistan, of whom her father demands she steer clear. But then her dad heads south for a better winter catch; Sofie and Luke begin a tentative relationship; and Sofie is forced to confront her fractured heritage when her (pregnant) mother and grandmother move back in. This story is about a search for emotional and cultural identity and, equally, about the effects of war and trauma. Sofie witnesses horrific pain in Luke's PTSD and in her grandmother's stories about atrocities in Khmer Rouge–ruled Cambodia; and by learning the intricacies of human suffering, Sofie undergoes an empathetic awakening. Farish writes the first-person narration in unadorned prose, focusing on raw emotions and the details of the frigid wintertime setting. An intensely melancholy tone permeates it all, but, as the fitting title suggests, what appears to be an ending (of a life, of a relationship) could, from another perspective, be the start of something hopeful. Katrina Hedeen

After Sofie's fisherman dad heads south for a better winter catch, Sofie and Luke, a troubled young medic recently returned from Afghanistan, begin a tentative relationship and Sofie is forced to confront her fractured heritage when her Cambodian mother and grandmother move in. Farish writes the first-person narration in unadorned prose, focusing on raw emotions and details of the frigid wintertime–New Hampshire setting.