Ipswich, Mon Amour

Ipswich, Mon Amour begins with a family secret that’s been buried for generations. It’s about to send 23-year-old Nora Mahoney on the quest of her life.

The story opens when her world out West is falling apart. In the aftermath, Nora visits her grandmother in Ipswich, MA. There she finds inspiration and a new purpose in the family tradition of farming, something her mother rejected.

Bringing the family farm back to life becomes an obsession for Nora. She struggles as a newbie, in part because she suffered the loss of her right hand as a child. But she deals with the challenges and finds a new sense of community among her neighboring farmers. With one of them, Nora attempts to rekindle a same-sex romance from her teenage summers in the seaside town.

When she learns of unanswered questions surrounding her French origins, the mystery leads Nora to Paris and a magical encounter with the world of death, then to southern France, where she succeeds in finding long-forgotten relatives and makes a startling discovery that solves the century-old puzzle. On her return, an unexpected event pits Nora’s interests against her mother’s. It also puts the fate of the family legacy, and Nora’s future, in jeopardy.