Cover Art: Aron Wiesenfeld
Cover Design: Jaya Nicely
* Publishers Weekly Big Indie Books of Fall 2023
* Ms. Magazine’s November 2023 Reads
* Debutiful’s Best Debut Books of 2023
Novel
synopsis
Claire Pedersen and her husband have relocated from New York City to the Catskills after finding a terrific deal on a property in foreclosure. The house in Caliban has been in April Ives’ family for three generations, and however hard it is for her to give it up, the single mother of three children from two different fathers has run out of options. As will happen in small towns, the two women continue to cross paths, despite having little in common beyond a mutual antipathy. Nevertheless, Claire moves forward with renovations on the house, and April tries to move on.
When Claire’s husband develops an erotic fascination with Anna, a young Korean member of a local religious community called the Eternals, two marriages—and one pregnancy—swiftly and dramatically end. In the aftermath, Claire is left to finish the renovation and salvage the life she had imagined for herself in the country. April must contend with her ex who has just been released from prison, and his desire to be a part of their son’s life. And Anna, after being shunned by the Eternals since the incident with Claire’s husband, struggles to make a place for herself outside of her insular community.
Meanwhile, a creeping unease is growing inside the house that harbors painful memories—and more secrets—for all three women. What happens next will bind their fates in tragic and redemptive ways. The significance (and mystery) of luck, fate, and resilience lies behind this portrait of lives connected by coincidence and catastrophe.
“Lee’s first novel is refreshingly out of sync with current trends; she manages to engage readers without relying on a big plot hook or trendy issue, and her point-of-view remains disquietingly ambiguous…the ending, while logical and satisfying, is not predictable. Life these days seldom is—which may be the novel’s ultimate message. An engrossing, quietly original take on what women must do to survive in 21st century small-town America.”
Praise
“This remarkable debut by Chin-Sun Lee centers on three women in ‘upcountry’ New York whose lives intertwine through unexpected and unsettling events. Speaking to economic injustice, infidelities, addiction and incarceration, religious extremism and more, this isn’t the most uplifting book of the year, but it might be the most captivating.”
“Upcountry is a novel of remarkable depth and insight into the human condition, and the ways in which luck, class, and circumstance shape individuals' destinies. Chin-Sun Lee’s characters are tasked with picking up the pieces and trying again, using the tools they have to create a life that feels worth living. This is a novel that isn’t afraid of delving into the dark aspects of human nature, and how a small community can both nurture and destroy its inhabitants. Gripping, compassionate, and gorgeously written, Upcountry has the power to haunt.”
— Kate Folk, author of Out There
“Propulsive and prismatic, Upcountry is an unflinching look at the thin but taut line between faith and disillusionment, poverty and plenty, the will to live and the pull of oblivion. Chin-Sun Lee is a dazzling storyteller. I could not put this novel down.”
— Tsering Yangzom Lama, author of The Carol Shields Prize longlisted We Measure the Earth with Our Bodies
“Upcountry is a stunning, innovative addition to Gothic novels. Nothing and no one are quite as they seem in Chin-Sun Lee’s compelling debut that sustains its tension to the blistering, satisfying end. A terrific portrayal of small town animosity, classicism, and alienation, Upcountry feels haunting and real—Chin-Sun Lee is a writer to watch.”
— Chelsea G. Summers, author of A Certain Hunger
“Three women, all living in the gossipy hothouse of a small town in upstate New York, but with such differing socio-economic, romantic and religious lives that they might as well exist on different planets. Forced together by neighborly cruelty and a natural calamity, Chin-Sun Lee's distinct and memorable characters become representative of an American maelstrom of contemporary ills—drug abuse, income inequality, incarceration, climate change. Strange, searing, and powerfully written, Upcountry is a riveting debut.”
— Helen Schulman, author of Lucky Dogs
“With cinematic detail and gripping momentum, Upcountry tells the story of women affected by economic inequality, religious extremism, illness, and despair, counterbalanced by their inner strength and a spirit of resiliency. The cataclysmic intertwining of these three women’s lives—painful but also redemptive—surprised, challenged, and captivated me.”
— Polly Rosenwaike, author of Look How Happy I’m Making You