The Fortune Cookie Writer: A Novel

Dog walker by day and fortune cookie writer by night, Marissa is broke. Blindsided by divorce, she's determined to support her young son, Owen, musically gifted and struggling to hide his peculiar behaviors from the world. When a stranger offers her a week's pay to cook dinners for a widow who lives one floor down, Marissa accepts. She'd be a fool to turn down such easy cash. But the arrangement isn't simple with ninety-four-year-old Rose, who tends to lapse into Yiddish and has no interest in visits from an unfamiliar neighbor. Soon Marissa discovers clues about Rose's unspoken history: a piano, silent for decades, yet still in tune; a locked case with an unbreakable code; and three hidden photos bearing an inscription. As Owen's future darkens, Rose's past is revealed-leaving Marissa to decide how to create good fortune for the three of them.