Underburn

An ex-actress, her son, and his boyfriend flee the scorched California landscape in this “wonderfully engaging tale of both family and the underside of fame.” —Natalie Jenner, international-bestselling author of The Jane Austen Society

Iris Flynn is an acerbic, self-sufficient seventy-three-year-old widow with a minor past as a B-list actress and a streamlined kitchen inspired by Marie Kondo. But her composed and simplified existence is disrupted when her son Frank lands on her doorstep after his rental home is destroyed in a wildfire, the latest in a string of personal setbacks for Frank. He arrives with Logan, his young and handsome boyfriend, a featured extra on a teen soap opera with a loyal Instagram following.

Soon, news from Iris’s estranged family in Maine forces everyone out of their comfort zone. Iris convinces Frank and Logan to travel with her to the potato farm from which she made a quick getaway fifty years earlier, unleashing a funny and poignant family saga about secrets, forgiveness, and the shifting map of the human heart. Underburn is an extraordinary story about family resilience, missed connections, and second chances that assures us it’s sometimes okay to create our own Hollywood endings.

“Gaythwaite’s debut novel Underburn mirrors the deceptive richness of the very generational ties it so charmingly explores: the long memories, conflicts big and small, surprisingly pivotal moments, and rediscovered bonds. One rarely encounters characters drawn with such candor, warmth, and humanity: you will gladly cheer and care for everyone as they seek to make peace with the past, while risking it all for a brand-new future.” —Natalie Jenner