Hollow Bones

On September 11, 2001, Molly Fitzgerald was just two months old when her mother left for a meeting at the World Trade Center and never returned. Though she was raised with deep love by her father and stepmother, the loss cast a long shadow over her life, leaving her with a lasting awareness of how suddenly disaster can strike.

As an adult, Molly channels that fear into her work as head of Rhode Island’s Department of Emergency Preparedness, where she plans for catastrophes ranging from hurricanes to epidemics and plane crashes. Alongside her husband Jesse, a police polygraph specialist carrying wounds of his own, she believes she has built a life grounded in safety, trust, and resilience.

But when an unforeseen event disrupts their fragile sense of stability, both Molly and Jesse are forced to confront uncomfortable truths about themselves, their marriage, and the stories they have constructed in order to survive.

Shifting between past and present, Hollow Bones is a sweeping and intimate novel about grief, self-deception, and the ways people attempt to protect themselves from loss. At its heart, it is a moving exploration of family, memory, and the enduring bonds between mothers and daughters.