Winner of the 1989 PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award  for best first novel, this exquisite book  confronts real-life issues of alienation and violence  from which the author creates a stunning testament  to the human capacity for mercy, compassion and  love.

Beth and Jennifer know their company monitors their office e-mail, but they still spend all day sending each other messages, gossiping about their coworkers at the newspaper and baring their personal lives like an open book. When Lincoln applied to be an Internet security officer, he hardly imagined he'd be sifting through other people's inboxes like some sort of electronic Peeping Tom. Lincoln is supposed to turn people in for misusing company e-mail,...

"A novel about teenager Emmie Blue, who releases a balloon with her email address and a big secret into the sky, only to fall head-over-heels for the boy who finds it; now, fourteen years later, the one thing Emmie has been counting on is gone for good, and everything she planned is up in the air"-- Years ago Emmie Blue released a red balloon into the sky; attached was her name, her email address-- and a secret she desperately wanted to be free of....

Moments after they learn their brother is dead, estranged siblings Liv and Gabe receive a scheduled email from him, claiming he was murdered, and returning home to investigate, they risk everything to unearth the secrets in a small town where someone is willing to kill for the truth to stay buried.