cover image Girls with Long Shadows

Girls with Long Shadows

Tennessee Hill. Harper, $27.99 (304p) ISBN 978-0-06-341201-9

Hill debuts with a self-conscious Southern Gothic about triplets so identical that their family calls them Baby A, B, and C. Each girl also resembles their mother, who died giving birth to them. The triplets have grown up in the care of their grandmother, Isadora, whom locals know as “the Manatee,” owing to her frequent naked swimming in the bayou near her home in Longshadow, Tex. At 19, the triplets have grown into sultry Southern temptresses, who entice both their teenage friends and the grown men who golf at their grandmother’s run-down country club. The triplets’ games—which include swapping places to mislead lovers—take a serious turn when Baby B’s boyfriend kisses the wrong sister, setting in motion a painful power struggle between the siblings that culminates in tragedy. Hill’s prose is thick with atmosphere (“Iridescent snatches of shell and tail and gravel shone against me like treasure”), but some readers may be frustrated by the leisurely pacing, which only picks up at the very end. This lacks the thrust of Where the Crawdads Sing, but there’s enough here to suggest good things from Hill to come. Agent: Elizabeth Pratt, Park & Fine Literary. (May)