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Waiting for the Night Song Hardcover – 12 January 2021
Julie Carrick Dalton (Author) Find all the books, read about the author, and more. See search results for this author |
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Named a Most Anticipated book by Newsweek * USA Today * CNN * Parade * Buzzfeed * Medium * GoodReads * PopSugar * Frolic Media * Betches * The Nerd Daily * SheReads and more
Smart and searingly passionate...an illuminating snapshot of nature, betrayal, and sacrifices set in the evocative New Hampshire wilderness.--Kim Michele Richardson, bestselling author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
A startling and timely debut, Julie Carrick Dalton's Waiting for the Night Song is a moving, brilliant novel about friendships forged in childhood magic and ruptured by the high price of secrets that leave you forever changed.
Cadie Kessler has spent decades trying to cover up one truth. One moment. But deep down, didn't she always know her secret would surface?
An urgent message from her long-estranged best friend Daniela Garcia brings Cadie, now a forestry researcher, back to her childhood home. There, Cadie and Daniela are forced to face a dark secret that ended both their idyllic childhood bond and the magical summer that takes up more space in Cadie's memory then all her other years combined.
Now grown up, bound by long-held oaths, and faced with truths she does not wish to see, Cadie must decide what she is willing to sacrifice to protect the people and the forest she loves, as drought, foreclosures, and wildfire spark tensions between displaced migrant farm workers and locals.
Waiting for the Night Song is a love song to the natural beauty around us, a call to fight for what we believe in, and a reminder that the truth will always rise.
- Print length336 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherForge
- Publication date12 January 2021
- Dimensions14.38 x 3.25 x 21.87 cm
- ISBN-101250269180
- ISBN-13978-1250269188
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Review
"Waiting for the Night Song is not just a coming of age story, but several coming of age stories. It's a novel about how time passes and how time stands still, ties that bind and ties that constrict, place and our place in the world, what keeps us together and what keeps us apart, all of which is to say that Julie Carrick Dalton has written a novel of elegant contradiction, intimately explored, beautifully woven together." --Laurie Frankel, New York Times bestselling author of One Two Three
"Julie Carrick Dalton's deftly constructed, urgent yet slow-burning debut novel reads like a warning from the frontlines of our rapidly deteriorating natural world." --Omar El Akkad, American War
"Both a timely and timeless literary mystery, Waiting for the Night Song is as seductive as it is smart, blending the allure of Julie Dalton's beloved rural New Hampshire setting with the dark undercurrents of a community's racial divisions and betrayals. This is a story of love, of home, of friendship and family, of a childhood's innocence and an adult's comeuppance, all of which are in the line of fire in this beauty of a page turner." --Michelle Hoover, award-winning author of Bottomland and The Quickening.
"Human nature clashes with Mother Nature in this riveting and heartbreaking coming of age story-- gorgeously written, and wonderfully told. With its combination of powerful themes and intensely immersive setting, fans of Delia Owens will swoon to find their new favorite author. A phenomenal debut!" --Hank Phillippi Ryan, award-winning author of The First to Lie
"Dalton writes masterfully of human relationship and the fraught relationship humanity has with ecology...put it on your lists NOW." --Michael Zapata, author of The Lost Book of Adana Moreau
"I marvel when I come across a book that is at once timely and timeless...It's a novel that burns-figuratively and literally-with sharp prose and uncommon wisdom. Do yourself a favor and have a look for yourself." --Peter Geye, award-winning author of Wintering
"Waiting for the Night Song is a beautiful book that is also a hell of a read. Complex characters, unforgettable setting, taut storyline, big ideas." --Ashley Shelby, author of South Pole Station
"Smart and searingly passionate, Dalton's absorbing mystery debut explores many timely issues including global warming, female friendships, childhood secrets, and the lengths we take to protect them -- Waiting For The Night Song is an illuminating snapshot of nature, betrayal and sacrifices set in the evocative New Hampshire wilderness." --Kim Michele Richardson, award-winning author of The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek
"A killer, gorgeous debut that tackles love, racism and even climate change. Waiting for the Night Song will break your heart, leave you breathless and wanting more." --Rachel Barenbaum, bestselling author of A Bend in the Stars
"Dalton weaves the vagaries of friendship, the wonder of the natural world, and the power of truth to create a powerful and unforgettable story." --Erica Ferencik, bestselling author of The River at Night and Into the Jungle
"Dalton's debut is a story of friendship, family, and the consequences of acting out of fear, especially when those actions are performed to protect those we love. The storytelling is made even more vivid by the way the novel practically breathes the woods of New Hampshire." --Booklist
"Stirring...a taut novel that builds suspense to the very end." --Publishers Weekly
"Dalton writes thoughtfully and poetically about a place clearly close to her own New Hampshire-based heart. Cadie and Daniela's interrupted friendship forms the core of the novel, and Dalton captures that best-friend bond so intensely forged in youth. Through vivid and emotional imagery, Waiting for the Night Song speaks to the power that a place and its people can have over your life." --BookPage
About the Author
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Product details
- Publisher : Forge (12 January 2021)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 336 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1250269180
- ISBN-13 : 978-1250269188
- Dimensions : 14.38 x 3.25 x 21.87 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 343,950 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 1,009 in Women's Fiction About Friendship
- 32,726 in Suspense Thrillers (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

JULIE CARRICK DALTON is a New England journalist and farmer. Her debut novel WAITING FOR THE NIGHT SONG launched in January, 2021 as a CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, Parade, and Buzzfeed Most Anticipated 2021 Book, and was an Amazon Editor's Pick for Best Books of the Month. Her writing has appeared in The Boston Globe, BusinessWeek, The Hollywood Reporter, Electric Literature, The Chicago Review of Books, Orion Magazine, Lit Hub, and other publications. She contributes to DeadDarlings, The Writer Unboxed, and GrubStreet’s writer’s blogs. Her second novel, THE LAST BEEKEEPER, will be released in 2023.
Mom to four kids and two dogs, Julie also owns and operates a 100-acre farm. When she isn't writing or digging in the dirt, you can probably find her kayaking in New Hampshire or walking in the woods hunting for mushrooms.
Customer reviews
Top reviews from other countries


Cadie and Daniela live on the shores of a New Hampshire lake—until a catastrophic incident occurs when Cadie is eleven destroys their friendship. Decades later Daniela calls Cadie to tell her their long-held childhood secrets are about to surface with dire consequences Daniela’s family and other people.
The prose is lyrical and the descriptions of nature, of the New Hampshire woods so vibrant you can almost hear the night call of the birds, taste the fresh water of the lake, feel the cushion of fallen leaves beneath your feet . If you’re a nature fan, you might want to read this in conjunction with several other recent reads with superb depictions of nature: The Wild Birds by Emily Strelow, Winter Loon by Susan Bernhard, In a Town Called Paradox by Miriam Murcutt, or Wild Life by Keena Roberts.



Nature is real in this book. It speaks. It shows us her wounds. This is the story of a community; therefore, it fits that the Garcias immigration issues play an important role in the tales and spans decades between Cadie and Daniela. Their friendship is genuine because it’s not perfect.
At the end of the book, the author shows us how Daniela’s life was shaped by family secrets that she carried into all her relationships, including her childhood friendship with Cadie. Cadie had a generic childhood including her crush on Summer Boy Garrett, until she is thrust into his secrets, the Garcias’ Clyde’s and Juan’s murder. Even after putting great distance between herself and her childhood home, Cadie’s life is haunted by the many secrets she carried with her.
The book opens with what the main character wants and throughout Cadie fights to convince others of her findings, her fears, until disaster strikes.
My least favorite character is the Pine beetles, but even they have a place in our eco-system. We just need to find a balance so we can all exist on planet earth without destroying it and all living creatures along with it.
The author’s passion is palpable through the pages of this book. Now I listen for the thrush’s night song.