Haven is fiercely protective of her little brother, Chase, spiriting him away when their father’s temper is about to flare yet again. She hides the bread away so he’ll have something for lunch, and she teaches him to hide himself. But when that’s no longer enough to keep him safe, she steals the car and takes them both away to their aunt, Mary, who tries her best to love and nurture them.

They try to redeem their harrowing childhood in different ways: Haven, lost and damaged, goes to medical school and teacher’s college, and marries young, hoping to find meaning through her daughter, April. Chase battles his demons through cathartic but doomed performance art. And, always, they try to keep one another afloat.

Chase and Haven is a haunting story — inventively told and deeply felt — of suffering and love, made of thousands of small impressionist facets that refract the quiet spectrum of the beauty and the detritus of two entwined lives.

Michael Blouin

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