The Lauras is a mother-teen road novel, told from the perspective of an agender teen named Alex. We travel across the country and through time, following Ma's past while also living through the present. Alex and Ma are resourceful and make the best of their varied and sometimes quite difficult circumstances. Ma and Alex are survivors in the best, most expansive sense of the word. Their experiences are not tidy, nor necessarily resolved, but they are owned. This character-driven story explores the many meanings of family and love. It is a tale of self-discovery, reflection, and ultimately, self-definition. Content warning: Though not graphic in nature, the narrative depicts non-consensual sexual contact between an adult and a minor. It also addresses domestic abuse.Publisher description:
I didn't realize my mother was a person until I was thirteen years old and she pulled me out of bed, put me in the back of her car, and we left home and my dad with no explanations. I thought that Ma was all that she was and all she had ever wanted to be. I was wrong. As we made our way from Virginia to California, returning to the places where she'd lived as a kid in foster care and as a teenager on the run, repaying debts and keeping promises, I learned who she was in her life-before-me and the secrets she had kept.