This debut novel is so good it tempts one to dust off that old saw, "If you only read one book this year ..." When Marianne was eight years old, her mother left one day and never came back. This event reverberates throughout her life and makes our narrator the fascinating seeker that she is. Hughes's narrative explores trauma and how it's felt on the body, but also the way it resonates through the stories we tell ourselves and how we get over it. As intensely felt as an open razor on the skin, Pearl is a book that leaves lasting and strangely beautiful scars.