Why did Juny’s mother go away? And where did she go?

Fortunes Neck is a place of deep history and buried memory, a place where secrets grow up out of the earth. Among the first families of Fortunes Neck are the Weirs, Doc and his wife Jeannine. Their pride and joy is their daughter Amy, a pretty girl who wants a history of her own. And that’s why she married Johnny Collins and gave birth to a baby girl, Juny. Then one perfect autumn day Amy walked out of all their lives, leaving only a note saying “Gone for mushrooms.” Fortunes Neck is a mystery of layers—the mystery of a disappearing bride, the mystery of what it means to make a family, and the mystery of the long, hidden reach of history.

Kevin McDermott has worked in countries around the world and written from all of them. In addition to his international consulting work his career has included journalism from France for The Washington Post and Saveur, from England for The New York Times, and from Haiti for The Atlantic Monthly. His poems and short stories have appeared on both sides of the Atlantic. A short story drawing on his reporting from Haiti, “Magic & Hidden Things”, was listed among the distinguished short fiction in that year’s edition of Best American Short Stories. His play, Our Intoxication, was a production of the Manhattan Theatre Festival in New York, where he lives.