A teenage boy named Patrick and his father come home from a weekend of rock climbing to discover that the boy's mother died from an apparent suicide. The rest of the book deals with how the pair try to overcome their grief, create a new life, and find some answers. They move to West Virginia and open a trail goods store for rock climbers. Patrick worries about his father, who deals with his grief by going on increasingly risky climbs, and becomes involved with a group of churchgoers who hold weekly services at the nearby campground.
This book is full of all kinds of details about rock climbing, but also about how people searching for answers stumble across partial solutions in the darkness. Those who enjoy refective stories with highly engaging characters should definitely pick up this one. ( )