A Crooked Tree: A Novel

By Una Mannion

A haunting, suspenseful literary debut that combines a classic coming of age story with a portrait of a fractured American family dealing with the fallout of one summer evening gone terribly wrong.

“The night we left Ellen on the road, we drove up the mountain in silence.”

It is the early 1980s and fifteen-year-old Libby is obsessed with The Field Guide to the Trees of North America, a gift her Irish immigrant father gave her before he died. She finds solace in “The Kingdom,” a stand of red oak and thick mountain laurel near her home in suburban Pennsylvania, where she can escape from her large and unruly family and share menthol cigarettes and lukewarm beers with her best friend.

One night, while driving home, Libby’s mother, exhausted and overwhelmed with the fighting in the backseat, pulls over and orders Libby’s little sister Ellen to walk home. What none of this family knows as they drive off leaving a twelve-year-old girl on the side of the road five miles from home with darkness closing in, is what will happen next.

A Crooked Tree is a surprising, indelible novel, both a poignant portrayal of an unmoored childhood giving way to adolescence, and a gripping tale about the unexpected reverberations of one rash act.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Jan 5, 2021
• ISBN: 9780063049857

Una Mannion

Una Mannion was born in Philadelphia and now lives in County Sligo, Ireland. She is the author of the novels A Crooked Tree and Tell Me What I Am.

Reviews for A Crooked Tree

[brangwinn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A dysfunctional family, a house in the woods, and children left to themselves, what could go wrong? Growing up in a neighborhood near Valley Forge PA, Libby’s mother forces her young sister out of the car one night to walk home. Ellen is picked up by a weird man who has no intentions of taking her home. Ellen escapes by opening the door and jumping out, but it unleashes a series of events in which a neighbor, an older boy from whom the kids try to stay away, comes to her rescue only to case more challenges. The story is fine, but the diverse set of characters is what makes it interesting. It is not just a teen coming of age story. Yes, there is neighborhood dram and conflict and romance, but Libby the main character and her 4 brothers and sisters have individual personalities. Winston, the weird hero, is shown to have learned from his past mistakes and is shown to be a true friend.

[mutantpudding · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Finding it hard to mentally categorize this book... its technically historical fiction, kinda coming of age, with thriller/mystery vibes.

Basically people are complicated, grieving is complicated, growing up is painful.

Content warning for CSA and sexual assault. Its kind of a heavy read tbh but its good and very atmospheric.

[vanessacw · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A coming of age family drama set in the suburbs of Pennsylvania during the early 1980s. It begins with an argument in a car, resulting in disastrous consequences and opening up quite a few cans of worms within the neighbourhood.This is a slow burning story with some well drawn characters. The narrator is 15 year old Libby who I thought was particularly realistically described and scripted. Beautifully and evocatively written, it’s a tale of secrets, how they unravel and then affect those peoples around them. There is a certain amount of suspense and also a couple of dark and disturbing scenes, as well as some life affirming moments. It took me a little while to get into the flow of the writing, but once I did I enjoyed it. An engaging and thought provoking debut.