Josie and Vic - by Debra Thomas (Paperback)

About the Book

When Josie Serafini's brother, Vic, loses his family in a tragic accident, she drops everything and goes to LA to help him. While there, she confronts broken relationships with her estranged father and rebellious, singer-songwriter daughter and begins a long-distance relationship with the equine veterinarian caring for her beloved horses back home in New York.

Book Synopsis

When Josie Serafini's brother Vic loses his wife and children in a tragic accident, Josie leaves her home and beloved horses in Upstate New York to join him in Los Angeles. While helping Vic pick up the pieces of his shattered life, Josie confronts broken relationships with her estranged father and rebellious, singer-songwriter daughter. Josie and Vic each struggle to find where they belong in their changing worlds. Josie finds comfort in nature and in a budding, long-distance relationship with the empathetic equine veterinarian caring for her horses back home. Vic battles depression as he seeks purpose in his life. Josie's three horses and a Siberian husky help open hearts to tenderness and healing--but it's an unexpected journey to the US-Mexico border that offers this fragmented family a chance to reconnect. A story of love, loss, and forgiveness, Josie and Vic conveys hope--even in the darkest of times.

Review Quotes

2023 American Fiction Awards Finalist in Family Saga
2023 Hawthorne Prize Shortlist

". . . family saga with an uplifting ending."

--Kirkus Reviews

"Debra Thomas is a magician. Her artistry and empathy and gentle humor allow Josie and Vic, a novel grounded in the deepest of grief, to shine with hope, with compassion, with the reminder that connection and service offer us paths toward healing. An unforgettable, heart-filled, heart-filling novel."

--Gayle Brandeis, author of The Book of Dead Birds, winner of Barbara Kingsolver's Bellwether Prize

"In this beautifully crafted novel, tragedies test family bonds while revealing the power of love and the strength and resilience of the human spirit."

--Elizabeth McKenzie, author of The Portable Veblen

"Josie and Vic encompasses personal love, human love beyond borders, and, ultimately, global love, as Madre Tierra's Turtle Islands slowly move together to create a new Pangaea. A new form and a new hope--the future reimagined."

--Alma Luz Villanueva, American Book Award-winning author of Song of the Golden Scorpion and Gracias

"With an authentic sense of place and time, Josie and Vic pulls the reader into the emotional depths of familial relationships and the pain of generational secrets. Author Debra Thomas has created characters who illuminate the essentials of the human heart in this story of love, loss, and renewal."

--Johnnie Bernhard, author of Hannah and Ariela

"Debra Thomas is a master at creating complex and believable characters who deal with abandonment issues, tragedy, starting over when all seems lost--and the soul connection between animals and humans."

--Kathleen M. Rodgers, author of 2021 WILLA Literary Award Finalist The Flying Cutterbucks

"Josie Serafini--tough yet tender--wins us over from the first page in award-winning Debra Thomas's second novel Josie and Vic. Dealing with layers of anxiety, grief, and loss, Josie shows us that sometimes the longest road home teaches us the most about ourselves. For fans of Ann Patchett, Joyce Carol Oates, and Barbara Kingsolver. A lovely book."

--Ashley E. Sweeney, New Mexico-Arizona Book Award winner of Answer Creek

"Josie and Vic is about transcending tragedy and finding the way back, or the way forward, with the help of those you love--or those who care enough to leave 'blue flags' along the way. An incredibly touching, heartbreaking story, filled with heart and soul."

--Lorraine Devon Wilke, author of The Alchemy of Noise

"Josie and Vic is a rare gift to thoughtful readers. In our cynical times, Debra Thomas lingers with everyday people--people who struggle as they confront tragedy and loss, yet rise above it by connecting with each other. This is a novel of connection--something I deeply needed."

--Shelley Blanton-Stroud, author of the Jane Benjamin Novels

"The tectonic plates that have undergirded siblings Josie and Vic are shattered by unspeakable loss, and each must make sense of their life in order to find their way back home. All things are bound together, Chief Seattle says, and they are in Thomas's exquisite telling and crystalline prose. Each member of this multigenerational family must seek forgiveness and reconciliation, as we too must do within ourselves, as well as across regions, countries, and continents. Thomas's storytelling gift is one of empathy for her characters, both human and animal, and love of family in all its complicated conditions."

--Gretchen Cherington, author of Poetic License

"Against a Southern California backdrop, shifting dynamics in a family are brought into focus in a sensitive story of people set adrift from life's great tragedies. A clear-sighted, moving, contemporary story of the familial support it takes to bravely move forward, Josie and Vic explores what it takes to heal a shattered self in favor of joining a greater whole."

--Claire Fullerton, author of Little Tea

"Josie and Vic captured me; I devoured it in two sittings, totally engaged and invested in the characters. An amazing story of love and loss, love and family, love and hope, this heartwarming novel is a compassionate tale of connections and explorations, underlining well-known truths and providing new insights as to how we navigate our worlds."

--Romalyn Tilghman, author of To the Stars Through Difficulties

"There is so much hope and forgiveness laced throughout Debra Thomas's examination of a family that has drifted apart and finally learns how to come back together. The imagery in Josie and Vic is equally powerful--from the intertwining roots of the maple trees in the family's upstate New York home to the glass sculpture reflecting light, music, and energy in Seattle to the vibrant tradition of Día de los Muertos in Southern California, celebrating love, life and remembrance. These characters stayed with me long after the final page. Bravo!"

--Mary Camarillo, author of The Lockhart Women

"Beautifully crafted and richly detailed, this is a novel with a conscience and something important to say."

--Jeannee Sacken, author of Behind the Lens and Double Exposure

"With tenderness and empathy, Debra Thomas weaves together decades of family secrets, betrayals, and tragedies. How do you find your way back home after unimaginable loss?"

--Eileen Harrison Sanchez, author of Freedom Lessons