A moving new novel about friendship, forgiveness, and the secrets we keep

New release from Sibylline Press!

A long-buried secret. A friendship on the brink. A family forever changed.

In 1964, Joan Cavanaugh has a secret affair that leads to the birth of a daughter whose true paternity she takes to her grave. Fifty years later, when 23andMe unearths the buried truth, the foundations of two tightly connected families are deeply shaken. The House of Cavanaugh is a gripping story of hidden pasts, unraveling loyalties, and what it really means to be family.

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Advance Praise for The House of Cavanaugh: A Novel

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“Polly Dugan is a wise and sensitive writer, and with this beautiful novel she'll break your heart.”

—Edan Lepucki, NYT bestselling author of Time’s Mouth and California

“The House of Cavanaugh is a brilliant, gripping novel built around the secrets we keep from the world, and the ones we keep from ourselves. Polly Dugan writes like a dream. Her sentences are piercing and true. This book takes clean aim at the messy truths of the human heart. I couldn’t put it down.”

— Steve Almond, author of All the Secrets of the World and Truth Is the Arrow, Mercy Is the Bow

“Polly Dugan writes about the complexities of family and marriage, love and loss, with authenticity and deep compassion. This artfully layered novel succeeds at being both a compelling page-turner and a sensitive, nuanced portrait of real people living real lives. I devoured it with eagerness and admiration.”

—Elise Juska, author of Reunion

About the Author

Polly Dugan is a Tin House Summer Workshop alum and the author of the linked story collection, So Much a Part of You, and the novel, The Sweetheart Deal. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in The Dickinson Review, Narrative, Line Zero,ModernLoss.com and Huffpost.com. She lives in Portland and Manzanita, Oregon with her family.