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TILT incorporates a familiar tope—natural (earthquake) or other disaster and then protagonist goes on an “odyssey�� of finding loved one(s) while reflecting back on their life. If you are a Millennial or younger and have not read many similar plots/themes, you may be swept away. I enjoyed following Annie, three weeks away from giving birth, trying to find her way back to her husband, Dom, after an earthquake flattens half the city of Portland, Oregon, while she is shopping for a crib. She blames herself for procrastinating this purchase for so long. Her precarious marriage with a struggling actor creates financial issues that preoccupies her. Annie’s husband is selfish and self-regarding, which adds to her stress. During her long walk post-quake, she talks to her currently unnamed baby, which Annie calls “Bean.��

Author Emma Pattee gifts us a promising debut, with confident, organic prose and themes of motherhood, pregnancy, marriage, family, survival, and trauma. The novel builds momentum as Annie toggles back and forth between past and present, with her eye on the immediate future and inevitable birth of baby. She has reached an emotional crisis just as the earthquake crisis has occurred. We comprehend Annie’s empathy as she reaches out to others, some who are separated from their children. A woman who helped save her from the crushed IKEA store becomes he walking mate.

The stakes keep rising as the narrative progresses. Although a natural disaster has occurred, Pattee balances the interior landscape of Annie’s life with the destruction of the city. As we go back and forth, we head toward a surprising but inevitable finale. Readers wanting an ending tied up in a bow may be disappointed. Although the book doesn’t break as much ground as the earthquake, there’s enough space between the words for considerate contemplation. Pattee has the chops for a long future as a writer.

“Here’s how this will go, Bean. Listen to me now. It can only go one way. I will cross the bridge. I will walk to the theatre. Your father will be there. I will find him. He will cry when he sees us. And together we will walk home. We will walk home together. We will be home because we are together. We will be every cliché about home once we are together.��

Thank you to Simon & Schuster for sending me a copy for review.