Necessary Places: A Novel

When Anna Donoghue agrees to spring her aged father from his nursing home and drive him halfway across the country to the Iowa town she grew up in and has no wish to see again, she believes that he is the only traveler in their car with something to find there. But the old man, helpless with Parkinson’s, is impelled by unspoken business that will rock her ordered world. And so will the revelations coming from Anna’s only child, heretofore-perfect 19-year-old Chloe—revelations gleaned from fragmented phone calls with Anna’s husband David, who is searching for Chloe in Boston’s backstreets. When Anna and her father reach Iowa, their road trip takes several directions at once, all leading straight to the heart of self and family.This story of three generations calls forth the strands that connect us one to another. Necessary Places asks what takes us away from those we love, what return is possible, and how to find the forgiveness that can carry us home. O'Donnell's characters are so real, and their quest to understand and to make amends is so compelling, that I wish this beautiful novel could continue on and on. A tender, profound, and engaging tribute to the power of love to overcome distances between parents and children.” - Harriet Scott Chessman, author of Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper