Twinless Twin finds a family maimed by a troubled, enigmatic son, whose unspeakable actions leave the family reeling, torn between moving on and searching for answers. While the boy's shadow looms over the entire book, his sister quietly emerges as the novel’s key character. Twinless Twin is largely set in 20th century America in the foothills of an unnamed mountain. This insular landscape breeds rumor, legend, desperation, and daydreams, and a mystery that runs deeper than the family who inhabits its woods. The book raises questions regarding culpability in the face of tragedy, and questions regarding the responsibilities of those who remain once a family has been splintered. What must be done to salvage the family, their reputation, and their homeplace?

A “twinless twin,” or a twin who survives their sibling twin, can sometimes be plagued with lifelong feelings of loss, guilt, and even a strange sense of urgency—a need to live two lives in one. In this story, the tragedy of the lost child reverberates through the surviving sibling and ripples through the rest of the family and beyond. The novel's threaded-stories form seeks to evoke this phenomenon in all its strange manifestations.