Hello Loved Ones

It’s 1968 in Holland, Michigan, and Sally Van Sloeten wants to know why her father doesn’t love her. Her mother, sister, and brother call her dad a deadbeat and never want to see him again, but Sally vows to find him in time for a Father/Daughter banquet, even if it means running away with a gas station attendant named Cash. She doesn’t care that her brother Lenny was arrested for breaking Cash’s nose. She won’t let Lenny’s explosive temper stand in her way, and she’s too preoccupied to wonder what has him so angry. All she knows is that she has to be like the other girls, whether it’s at the banquet or in the front seat of Cash’s car. But as Sally realizes her dream, her mother reveals a painful secret that sends her spinning out of control.

A coming-of-age story reminiscent of works by Anne Tyler and Elizabeth Strout, Hello Loved Ones takes readers on an emotional journey as each of the Van Sloetens struggles to define family ties, and to answer: Is love determined by blood or by choice? And what responsibility do we have to the life we create?