The Net Beneath Us
BY carol dunbarforge2022Query Letter
THE NET BENEATH US is a work of upmarket fiction in the vein of THE GREAT ALONE and SHOTGUN LOVESONGS set deep in the woods of northern Wisconsin. It’s a modern-day ghost story about a young widow determined to raise her children in an unfinished house because she is haunted by her regrets.
It was never Elsa Arnasson’s dream to live off the grid; she came from a life of privilege and had the luxury of studying art. She met her husband at a time in her life when she needed something more to believe in, and the big-hearted, tree-hugging Silas had ideals big enough for them both.
The novel begins four years into the life they are building together, on the day a logging accident leaves her husband brain dead but still breathing. In spite of the well-meaning advice from family, the impetuous Elsa has her husband brought home so that he can die in peace. Only he doesn’t die. Winter sets in and he holds on because, she thinks, of his love for them. Unprepared for the realities of life without running water or electricity, Elsa makes a decision one sub-zero night that opens up a darkness inside of her. She believes she is receiving signs but doesn’t trust herself to interpret them, and she becomes convinced that the only way to put him at peace is to prove her love by protecting their home, even as the woods around her threaten both her sanity and the lives of her children.
Told in a rotating third-person voice, this is a story that charts one family’s passage through grief as they learn that loss isn’t just about losing someone dear, it’s about who you go on to become without them.
I am a ghostwriter of over 50 nonfiction titles, and for the last 15-years I’ve lived in the house that is the setting for THE NET BENEATH US. My work has been published in several literary journals and one anthology, and my essays about living off the grid air on Wisconsin Public Radio. An earlier draft of this novel under the working title HEARTWOOD was a finalist for the 2013 Dana Award.
About
Age Range
Adult
Genre
Contemporary Fiction
Word Count
90,000