On a remote island off the coast of Virginia, family and friends gather to celebrate the wedding of Shay O’Connor and Andrew Pruitt. From the moment the guests arrive, all they can whisper about is the bride, who recently left the headline-making cult Synanon. Why would someone like Shay, an Ivy League graduate with a wealthy, doting fiancée, join Synanon? And has she really escaped their grasp?
Told from the interwoven perspectives of Shay’s brother William, her longtime friend Joel, and Shay herself, Tenderness is a slow-burn mystery that excavates dark family histories and romantic regrets. As the wedding day approaches, Joel and William pull at the loose threads of Shay’s story, and it becomes clear there is an even greater threat on the island than the secrets each character is keeping from one another.
Set in the tinderbox of the 1970s, Tenderness is a lit match, bringing hidden truths to light and asking if we can ever see ourselves or the people we love for who they truly are.
“Sly, elegant and menacing, Rowan Beaird’s Tenderness is an intoxicating tale of love and danger, terror and deceit. You’ll find yourself turning page after page, utterly swept up in the heady spell it casts, and the emotional heft that rises to an astonishing crescendo.” —Megan Abbott, New York Times bestselling author of The Turnout
“Tenderness has the page-turning drive of a thoughtful thriller, but with the guts and heart of the best Ann Patchett family novels. Rowan Beaird knows how to get inside the messy connective tissue between siblings, between lovers, between parents and children, and drill down to the truth there, in graceful, piercing prose. Tenderness is completely captivating.” —Emily Everett, author of Reese's Book Club pick All That Life Can Afford
“Tenderness, Rowan Beaird’s indelible latest, is a taut, atmospheric novel set against the encroaching sea and the uneasy glow of privilege. A sense of unease saturates the proceedings, with each character on the cusp of a decision that will alter the course of their life. Tenderness explores the tides of intimacy, the edges of family, and the missed moments we try desperately to catch before they slip away into the unseen beyond.” —Sarah Blakley-Cartwright, author of Alice Sadie Celine