Synopsis
Five years ago the eldest Furey son, Hugh, ran off into the night and never returned. His parents, estranged by grief, are trying to put the tragedy behind them after a long, exhausting, and fruitless search. His mother, recovering from an emotional breakdown, has lost herself in a new career; Hugh's father, having abandoned his faith and his position as a theology professor, now cares halfheartedly for their two remaining children. Left more or less to fend for themselves, ten-year-old Owen and fifteen-year-old Lena struggle to hold on to their brother's memory—an increasingly self-destructive obsession that gives rise to angel fantasies, drug use, quixotic quests, and dangerous experimentation that will ultimately force a damaged family to confront its past and find a future.
The Washington Post - Ron Charles
… Carey is an affecting writer with a good eye for the emotional details of adolescence. Every Visible Thing is a dramatic reminder of just what a corrosive mixture grief and silence can be. By its conclusion, salvation remains a long way off for these ordinary people, but the promise of it hovers over them.