All We Bury

Abstract

My novel in-progress, All We Bury, begins with Naomi and Olivia, two young women struggling to find belonging in the insular, fictional town of Fort Hanlon, Montana. Despite her fiancé’s serial and public infidelity, Naomi hopes that marriage will provide her status in the community and safety from her abusive family. Olivia, a teacher at the local high school, feels trapped in her marriage to Adam Lennington, a former Fort Hanlon football legend and temperamental alcoholic. Following the suicide of Jack Street, Adam’s uncle and also one of the community’s most glorified former athletes, Naomi’s aunt, Ginny, returns to Fort Hanlon after a decades-long hiatus to reveal that Jack raped her when she was seventeen. Ginny’s accusation divides Fort Hanlon, leaving Olivia and Naomi at odds with who to believe. But as their stories collide and their relationships unravel, these women discover another sinister secret: Rod Axelman, the high school’s celebrated former athletic trainer, had been sexually assaulting dozens of young men over the course of his career. In a town ravaged by groupthink, Naomi, Olivia, and Ginny must expose the evil that has for decades disguised himself as the community’s savior. Told in switching first-person points of view, All We Bury explores the impacts of systemic abuse and the forces that allow evil to go unexposed. This thesis consists of the first five chapters.