Summary

Chapter 1 introduces us to the first-person narration of a women referred to as "Mar." She explains that her husband, Charlie Willett, disappeared from a psychiatric hospital in the Berkshires of Western Massachusetts on January 7, 2012. She acknowledges that all signs point to him being dead, but she refuses to believe it. They found all his clothes (except his shirt) next to a lake during dangerous weather conditions. Charlie was in the hospital on Mar's suggestion because he was suicidal. When talking to Mar on the phone from the hospital, Charlie said his job was to "make a world [he] can live in," which Mar thought was a bad outlook (5). Rather, he should have adjusted to this world. Mar continues describing the story of his disappearance: he hitched a ride to the lake from a woman named Jessica Ng...