By Leif Garbisch

Oliver Birch, almost 14, rides his bike to deliver a birthday pound cake to his Uncle Theo. It is a Friday in April, Good Friday on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Oliver arrives in the late afternoon to a seemingly empty house. When Oliver can’t find his uncle, he climbs the stairs and discovers Theo hanging dead from an oak beam, his feet bare and a pile of clothes neatly folded on the bed.

This is a threshold moment for Oliver, an instance when he stands at the edge between unknowing and knowing. It is the first difficult step he takes towards a greater understanding of what it means to be a human being on earth. In chapters that take us through the years, Move is the story of this and other significant experiences in the lives of Oliver, his sister, Cricket, and his parents, April-Mei and Mika. Cricket continues to struggle with the very real presence of death. April-Mei is learning to accept the ebb and flow of daily life. Mika looks for answers in the natural world. And Oliver holds his family, including Theo, through life and death as everyone pushes step by step closer to love.