Beneficence by Meredith Hall

A family of five lives on a dairy farm in Maine. They put up hay and separate milk and clean the barn and wean the calves. When something unimaginable—yet somehow inevitable—occurs, they become a family of four. From that moment, guilt permeates and propels this novel.  MEREDITH HALL is the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir Without a Map, which was named Best Book of the Year by Kirkusand BookSense, and was Elle’s “Readers’ Pick of the Year.” The recipient of the 2004 Gift of Freedom Award from A Room of Her Own Foundation, Ms. Hall’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Gettysburg Review, The Kenyon Review, The Southern Review, and many other publications. She divides her time between Maine and California.