AA FAMILY Mystery
One summer morning, they vanished. Afterwards, echoes pinged through her head. Did it really happen? --just a nightmare? But she knew the truth. They weren’t hiding. They hadn’t run away. They were gone in the permanent sense. And when they vanished, other things vanished, too.
Jolly friends quit joking. Chatterboxes shut up. Blood relations turned brittle, because all of them were guilty. Summers would never again seem ripe and promising. No. After the vanishing, every new summer taunted them. Somebody called it a cosmic crime. Yes. They'd thought the precious ones were here to stay until the absence shriveled them to nothingness, like salt on a slug.
Released August 2026
Language English
Pages 248
Praise for Memory's Compass
"Heartbreaking and heart lifting, the book will grip readers with its searing portrayal of devastating loss. I was moved by Sylvie's reconstruction of life and family by embracing memories and searching for connections in unforeseen places. A testament to the transfiguring power of love."
Susan Hartmann
Distinguished Arts and Humanities Professor of History Emerita, The Ohio State University
"Totally engrossing. A gifted writer with a wonderful sense of rhythm and pacing, Sharyn Talbert should be teaching our students. I was especially interested in how the Church affected the life of her protagonist, Sylvie."
Christopher Highley
Professor of English; Director, Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, The Ohio State University
"A search for purpose and understanding, a perennial journey."
Debra Knapke
Ohio's Garden Sage and author of Perennials for Ohio
"All of the characters come alive in a spectrum of anguish and joy, but it's the children I'll never forget. The depiction of the harrowing events defy the imagination."
Ronda Griffith Bivens
MSW, Educator
"A wonderful book about every family's greatest fear. With a sharp eye for grief and a killing turn of phrase, Memory's Compass will stay as long in the memory as the work of Emily Dickinson. Talbert shows us a heartbreaking new America, a world that, for all its sunlight, is in deep pain. At the same time, her book has an arc of grace, taking us to an improbable place of light and healing. This is a profound work of real importance."
Lucas Kino
Author of Foxfire
"In prose that is lush and lyrical, but also fierce in its granular particularity, Sharyn Talbert
has given us an unforgettable portrait of soul-pummeling grief,
and of how that sadness may be leavened by memory and love.”
Julia Keller
Author and winner of the Pulitzer Prize
"Sharyn Talbert's distinct voice captures the complex tenor of a family, from daily life, road trips, and travels to unmitigated tragedy. Amidst struggles and grief, the narrator finds the courage not only to face enormous loss but also to embrace pleasures wherever she can find them. A tour de force."
Amy Shuman
Guggenheim Fellow, Author of Other People's Stories: Entitlement Claims and the Critique of Empathy