I’ll Stay

Children’s author (A Million Miles from Boston) Day’s excellent first foray into adult fiction chronicles three periods in the life of Clare Michaels, the aimless daughter of a famous writer. The first is her intense, college-years friendship with her best friend, Lee Sumner, which is irrevocably altered during a Daytona Beach trip when they are cornered by three men. Lee agrees she’ll willingly stay if they let Clare go. Lee is later saved, but she won’t discuss what happened to her, and as the years go by, Clare is haunted by the event. The second period covers the post-college years as Clare finishes her master’s degree and Lee, once confident, falls aimlessly in and out of jobs. The third period involves Clare’s mother, Eleanor, a self-involved writer. When confronted by a fan who claims that Eleanor stole her short story and turned it into Eleanor’s most famous book, Clare, who has mixed feelings about her mother, begins to wonder whether this is the reason why her mother remains mum about her novel’s origins. The novel is an intricate study of loyalty and guilt, providing full character arcs for both Clare and Lee, and it’s a page-turner from beginning to end. (Feb.)