The author of the beloved Love Letters to the Dead returns with a sweeping multi-generational story of a single mother and her biracial daughter, each at age seventeen. 
To seventeen-year-old Angie, who is mixed-race, Marilyn is her hardworking, devoted white single mother. But Marilyn was once young, too. When she was seventeen, Marilyn fell in love with Angie's father, James, who was African-American. But Angie's never met him, and Marilyn has always told her he died before she was born. 
When Angie discovers evidence of an uncle she's never met she starts to wonder: What if her dad is still alive, too? 
So she sets off on a journey to find him, hitching a ride to Los Angeles from her home in New Mexico with her ex-boyfriend, Sam. Along the way, she uncovers some hard truths about herself, her mother, and what truly happened to her father.
Alternating between Angie's present-day journey and Marilyn's romance set against the backdrop of LA in the '90s, the stories of In Search of Us intertwine to create a powerful tale about secrets and lies, race and identity, and mothers and daughters.
 Praise for In Search of Us:
"A rare and special book. Part mother-daughter love story, part road trip journey, part compelling mystery, and one hundred percent beautiful, spellbinding tearjerker. I’m in love with every page." ―Jennifer Niven, New York Times bestselling author of All the Bright Places and Holding Up the Universe
"A masterful work of fiction. Exploring race and mother and daughter relationships, this novel is also one of the most tender and authentic takes on first love that I have ever read." ―Jennifer Mathieu, author of MOXIE

In Search of Us

DELLAIRA, AVA

Children's Books

Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

Love Letters to the Dead: A Novel

It begins as an assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May did. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more -- though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships, falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her splintering family. And, finally, about the abuse she suffered while May was supposed to be looking out for her. Only then, once Laurel has written down the truth about what happened to herself, can she truly begin to accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has begun to see her sister as the person she was -- lovely and amazing and deeply flawed -- can she begin to discover her own path in this stunning debut from Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead.

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. When Laurel starts writing letters to dead people for a school assignment, she begins to spill about her sister's mysterious death, her mother's departure from the family, her new friends, and her first love.

Love Letters To The Dead (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

Teen & Young Adult

Literature & Fiction

Turtleback Books

It begins as an assignment for English class: Write a letter to a dead person. Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May did. 
Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to people like Janis Joplin, Amy Winehouse, Amelia Earhart, Heath Ledger, and more--though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating new friendships, falling in love for the first time, learning to live with her splintering family. And, finally, about the abuse she suffered while May was supposed to be looking out for her. 
Only then, once Laurel has written down the truth about what happened to herself, can she truly begin to accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has begun to see her sister as the person she was--lovely and amazing and deeply flawed--can she begin to discover her own path in this stunning debut from Ava Dellaira, Love Letters to the Dead.

Square Fish

About the Author\nAva Dellaira is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she was a Truman Capote Fellow. She grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and received her undergraduate degree from the University of Chicago. Love Letters to the Dead is her debut novel. She currently lives in Santa Monica\nAva Dellaira's In Search of Us is a sweeping multi-generational love story.\nTo seventeen-year-old Angie, who is mixed-race, Marilyn is her hardworking, devoted white single mother. But Marilyn was once young, too.\nWhen Marilyn was seventeen, she fell in love with Angie's father, James, who was African-American. But Angie's never met him, and Marilyn has always told her he died before she was born. When Angie discovers evidence of an uncle she's never met she starts to wonder: What if her dad is still alive, too?\nSo she sets off on a journey to find him, hitching a ride to LA from her home in New Mexico with her ex-boyfriend, Sam. Along the way, she uncovers some hard truths about herself, her mother, and what truly happened to her father.\n"A rare and special book. Part mother-daughter love story, part road trip journey, part compelling mystery, and one hundred percent beautiful, spellbinding tearjerker. I’m in love with every page." ―Jennifer Niven, New York Times bestselling author of All the Bright Places and Holding Up the Universe\n"A masterful work of fiction. Exploring race and mother and daughter relationships, this novel is also one of the most tender and authentic takes on first love that I have ever read." ―Jennifer Mathieu, author of Moxie

In Search Of

Hot Key Books

It begins as an assignment for English class: write a letter to a dead person.Laurel chooses Kurt Cobain because her sister, May, loved him. And he died young, just like May. Soon, Laurel has a notebook full of letters to the dead—to people like Janis Joplin, Heath Ledger, Amelia Earhart, and Amy Winehouse—though she never gives a single one of them to her teacher. She writes about starting high school, navigating the choppy waters of new friendships, learning to live with her splintering family, falling in love for the first time, and, most important, trying to grieve for May. But how do you mourn for someone you haven’t forgiven?It’s not until Laurel has written the truth about what happened to herself that she can finally accept what happened to May. And only when Laurel has begun to see her sister as the person she was—lovely and amazing and deeply flawed—can she truly start to discover her own path.In a voice that’s as lyrical and as true as a favorite song, Ava Dellaira writes about one girl’s journey through life’s challenges with a haunting and often heartbreaking beauty.

Love Letters to the Dead

BRILLIANCE AUDIO ^

One night. Two sides of a story. In multi-perspective storytelling filled with humanity and empathy, Exposure forces readers to reckon with conflicting truths that are not easily reduced to right or wrong. In 2004, Juliette Marker, a white college freshman, and Noah King, a Black high school senior, are two lonely souls who enter each other's orbit, forge a connection, and go home together after a night out. Twelve years later, Noah has done the impossible and made it in Hollywood. His first film is about to be released, and he and his beloved wife Jesse, a successful writer herself, have just had a baby. Meanwhile, Juliette's best friend Annie is back in LA for the first time in more than a decade, and makes a startling discovery about Juliette that will threaten to blow up the life Noah has struggled to build. Spanning decades, from LA to Chicago, and told through Annie, Juliette, Noah, and Jesse's perspectives, this powerful, provocative novel delves into one fateful night and the people affected by it, exploring how race, artistic ambition, and grief expose different versions of the same story.

Exposure: A Novel

United States

Zibby Books

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Books by DELLAIRA, AVA

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by DELLAIRA, AVA. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

In Search of Us

Love Letters to the Dead: A Novel

Love Letters To The Dead (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

Love Letters to the Dead: A Novel

In Search of Us

In Search Of

Love Letters to the Dead

Love Letters to the Dead

In Search of Us

Exposure: A Novel