Tell Me One Thing - Paperback

by Kerri Schlottman (Author)

A 2024 PenCraft Fiction Award Winner

A 2023 American Book Fest Best Literary Fiction Finalist

A Shelf Awareness Best Book This Week

In the gritty backdrop of rural Pennsylvania, nine-year-old Lulu's encounter with a trucker outside a rundown motel is captured on film by aspiring photographer Quinn who is passing through town. While the image launches Quinn's career, Lulu fights to survive in a volatile home. Decades later, Quinn's "Lulu & the Trucker" has fetched a staggering price at auction as she's preparing for a major retrospective of her photographic work. Lulu, now grown and struggling to make ends meet, stumbles upon her own image in the newspaper. Determined and emboldened, she attends Quinn's exhibition talk with a single burning question: Why didn't you help me all those years ago?

At its heart, Tell Me One Thing explores the unbreakable bonds that connect us across the fault lines of time and memory. From the gritty streets of 1980s New York City to the forgotten corners of the rust belt, the novel unveils the disparities and sacrifices woven into the fabric of America and is a poignant reminder of the enduring consequences of choice and the resilience required to navigate a world shaped by privilege and adversity.