Happiness Falls

When a father goes missing, his family's desperate search leads them to question everything they know about him and one another--both a riveting page-turner and a deeply moving portrait of a family in crisis from the award-winning author of Miracle Creek.

"We didn't call the police right away." These are the opening lines of this amazing book, which tells the story of a mixed-race Korean-American family living in Virginia whose lives are completely changed when their husband and father disappear.

The hyperanalytical, irreverent twenty-year-old daughter, Mia, has an explanation for everything, so when her father and younger brother Eugene disappear from a stroll in the neighborhood park, she doesn't worry at first. Their phone must have been gone. or stopped someplace to do errands. But by the time Mia's brother runs through the front door bloody and alone, it becomes clear that the father in this tight-knit family is missing and the only witness is Eugene, who has the rare genetic condition Angelman syndrome and cannot speak.

What comes next is a fast-moving examination of a father's whereabouts as well as a poignant portrayal of a family whose darkest secrets could be the reason for his absence. Full of shocking twists and fascinating questions of love, language, race, and human connection, Happiness Falls is a mystery, a family drama, and a novel of profound philosophical inquiry. With all the powerful storytelling she brought to her award-winning debut Miracle Creek, Angie Kim turns the missing person story into something wholly original, creating an indelible tale of a family who must go to remarkable lengths to truly understand one another.