Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

In Doan's (Lady Sunshine, 2021) fourth novel, the question isn’t what lies within a photograph but the haunting stories, painful secrets, and liberating truths that exist beyond its frame. Taking inspiration from the life of legendary surfer Dorian Paskowitz, who raised his children off the grid, this fictional story sees queer protagonist Ava's reunification with her mother and siblings following the death of the patriarch who orchestrated their surfing-focused, van-life childhoods. Their reunion is complicated by a journalist digging into the backstory of a photograph that made the family famous. As lines between the exposed and the person doing the exposing are blurred, the novel reflects on how family members can truly see each other. Like a surfer anxiously waiting for a wave, Doan’s narrative ebbs and flows through the different strings of tension binding a family together. Traveling back and forth in time, the novel explores the different paths of reconciliation. Doan’s solemn surfer story shows how the harsh reality behind a picture-perfect scene may offer a different kind of dream.