The Miraculous Flight of Owen Leach is the debut novel of Jennifer Dupree and, full disclosure, I attended grad school with Dupree and even had the honor of workshopping portions of this novel when it was still just a rough draft.
The story is about the ripple-effect of a miracle (maybe?) that occurs in a small Maine town when a teen mother, Sophia, throws her colicky infant out the window of her second story apartment and another woman, Rose, catches the baby. In addition to these two, the last point-of-view character is Hank, the baby-catcher's husband.
Dupree's writing style is concise, fresh, and loaded with great figurative language, like this line about how Rose feels about Sophia, "Rose felt lies and half-truths strung between them like clothes on a line." The writing is clear and easy to follow though loaded with subtext. The baby-throwing incident is basically the first beat of the story with the pacing slowing down considerably after that - which is perhaps my only complaint about the story. However, the characters are interesting enough to hold your attention as the story quietly unfolds and the ending is well-worth the wait as the novel's conclusion is at least as dramatic as it's opening.
Overall, this was a really fun read with characters who are flawed, complex, and deeply believable. If you're looking for a beautifully written family drama with characters you want to follow even when you don't always like them, look no further than The Miraculous Flight of Owen Leach which I'd give 9/10.
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