Consignment

When a ne’er-do-well cousin dies unexpectedly, Mary Ellen and Charles Hawley agree to take his young son Steven into their home. The boy’s birth mother, who is mentally ill, has already inflicted some psychological damage, but Mary Ellen is determined to help Steven start over. This act of charity soon takes its toll on a marriage that is already quietly fading. As Mary Ellen struggles to adapt to new parenting challenges, she begins to withdraw from her husband and cling to their two-year-old daughter. Finally, in a fit of longing for her former life, Mary Ellen indulges herself in a shopping trip and misses an afternoon pickup from school. And Charles, who must take up the slack, discovers a secret.

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Praise for Consignment

“Joan Bauer’s Consignment will get under your skin. It’s an elegantly told tale of how life and the choices we make don’t always turn out the way we expect.”

―John DeDakis, Writing Coach and Author of the Lark Chadwick mystery-suspense-thriller
series

About the Author

Joan Bauer holds a master’s degree in English and has worked as a trust officer in a bank. Her short fiction has appeared in Dappled Things, Amethyst Review, San Antonio Review, The Windhover, and Boudin, the online home of The McNeese Review. Consignment is excerpted from an unpublished novel that was longlisted for the 2022 Virginia Prize for Fiction. Learn more at www.joanelizabethbauer.com.

Consignment

Praise for Consignment

About the Author

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