What Missing Means

by Bonnie Stanard

Letters from Germany keep the Reinhart family connected to a son serving as a soldier in 1945. An empty mailbox is a worry. Though they are a tight-knit clan and look out for one another, there are subterranean angers and resentments, missed opportunities and lingering regrets—all of which thirteen year-old Lily only vaguely comprehends. When a marriage unravels, more relatives move into the Reinhart homestead, bringing trouble as the boy Calvin commits an escalating series of violent acts. Lily both likes and resents her cousins and shares her loft while wishing they would move out. As she tries on makeup, ruminates about boys, and worries about where she belongs in the family, she comes to realize life has more questions than answers.

288 pages, Paperback

Published July 7, 2016

About the author

Bonnie Rawls Stanard grew up in South Carolina on a farm near the North Edisto River, went to college, married Doug Stanard in Virginia Beach, and has moved as far as Brussels, Belgium in following his career. It is often the case that she doesn’t know what she thinks until she writes it down. This is particularly true of poetry. She’s been thinking enough to write seven novels and two books of poetry, which can be found at various online venues. Most of her novels are historical fiction, which allows readers to travel back in time and explore the historical record.