logo
Book excerpt: "Bug Hollow" by Michelle Huneven

Book excerpt: "Bug Hollow" by Michelle Huneven

CBS News20-07-2025
We may receive an affiliate commission from anything you buy from this article.
A summer lark turns tragic, and a shattered family must carry on, in "Bug Hollow" (Penguin Press), the latest novel by Michelle Huneven, the author of "Round Rock" and "Blame."
Read an excerpt below.
"Bug Hollow" by Michelle Huneven
Prefer to listen? Audible has a 30-day free trial available right now.
The summer when Sally Samuelson was eight, her brother Ellis graduated from high school and a few days later, he and his best friends, Heck Stevens and Ben Klosterman, drove up the coast in Heck's '64 Rambler American. They promised to be back in a week. Sally was the only one who went outside to see them off. She waved a dishrag and dabbed at pretend tears, then one or two real ones. "Bye, little Pips!" Ellis yelled from the back seat—he called her Pipsqueak, with variations. "See you in the funny papers!"
Ellis had thick, curly yellow hair long enough to tuck behind his ears and he wore a baseball cap to keep it there. He'd lately grown incredibly tall and skinny; his pants rode so low on his hip bones, they seemed about to slip off. Sally's sister, Katie, who was fourteen, called him El Greck after they saw El Greco's Christ on the Cross at the Getty; even their parents confirmed the resemblance.
His last two years in high school, Ellis had a girlfriend named Carla, who was also tall and blond and liked to show off her stomach. In front of Ellis, she would say hi to Sally. Sometimes Ellis would come into Sally's room when she was drawing on the floor; he'd sit by her and talk about his last baseball game or his weird calculus teacher, and sometimes he'd wonder how much he liked Carla and if she was even nice. Sally somehow knew not to say what she thought. Anyway, Ellis spent most of his time playing ball with Ben and Heck. For their trip, they packed Heck's old Rambler with sleeping bags, the small smelly tent the Samuelson kids used on camping trips, and a cooler full of sodas. After ten days, when Ellis hadn't come back, Heck showed up at the Samuelsons' front door with the tent. Sally answered his knock.
"Ellis decided to stay away for a few more days," he said.
"Stay where?" Sally's mother said from behind her.
"With some girl he met," said Heck. "Not sure where, exactly."
"Well, where did they meet?"
"On a beach around Santa Cruz."
That was all her mother could get out of Heck. "Some girl has snagged Ellis," she told Sally's father when he came home from work.
"Good for her," he said.
"How can you say that, Phil?" her mother cried. "El's such an innocent. What if she's trouble?"
Hinky, their Manchester terrier, cocked her head at one parent, then the other; she followed conversations—they'd tested her by standing in a circle and tossing the conversation back and forth. Hinky shifted her attention to each speaker in turn.
"What if he doesn't come back in time for his job?"
Ellis was supposed to be a counselor at the day camp he'd attended since first grade.
"Let's worry about that when the time comes," Sally's father said.
The camp's start date came and went.
An excerpt from "Bug Hollow," published by Penguin Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. Copyright © 2025 by Michelle Huneven. Reproduced with permission.
Get the book here:
"Bug Hollow" by Michelle Huneven
Buy locally from Bookshop.org
For more info:
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

MLB Speedway Classic between Braves and Reds set to break attendance record
MLB Speedway Classic between Braves and Reds set to break attendance record

Yahoo

time9 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

MLB Speedway Classic between Braves and Reds set to break attendance record

Major League Baseball will soon see one of its highest-attended games ever on August 2. MLB announced that the Speedway Classic, featuring the Atlanta Braves vs. the Cincinnati Reds, at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee, has already sold over 85,000 tickets. The game is set to surpass the previous regular-season game attendance record of 84,587, established on Sept. 12, 1954, when Cleveland Stadium hosted the New York Yankees. August 2 will not only feature the game, but also concerts headlined by Jake Owen, Tim McGraw, and Pitbull. [DOWNLOAD: Free WSB-TV News app for alerts as news breaks] It will also be the first MLB game ever in the state of Tennessee. The first pitch will be between two Hall of Famers: The Braves' Chipper Jones will pitch to the Reds' Johnny Bench. The all-time attendance record was set during an exhibition game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox on March 29, 2008, at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, with 115,300 fans in attendance. TRENDING STORIES: Walton County family sues after home sold using forged deed PHOTOS: Best 25 public middle schools in Georgia Geo-fencing technology leads to arrest in 71-year-old grandmother's cold case murder [SIGN UP: WSB-TV Daily Headlines Newsletter]

A Podcast for the Questions Rarely Asked
A Podcast for the Questions Rarely Asked

New York Times

time11 minutes ago

  • New York Times

A Podcast for the Questions Rarely Asked

Times Insider explains who we are and what we do and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together. When Wesley Morris, a critic at large for the Culture desk at The New York Times, was brainstorming what he wanted to do with his new podcast, he had carte blanche to invite pretty much any guest he wanted. But he didn't just want to talk to celebrities. Mr. Morris, who has won two Pulitzer Prizes for criticism, wanted to talk to the people who write about culture and the artists who make it, whether they were his friends or colleagues, or someone else who might have interesting things to say about why a particular show, character or maker had cut through the noise. 'The thing about having critics and writers come on is that they're used to talking about art and culture,' Mr. Morris said. 'But artists would love to talk about things they're not normally asked about.' In the new weekly conversation show he is hosting, 'Cannonball,' which debuted last month and drops new episodes on Thursdays, Mr. Morris said he seeks to explore culture 'in the broadest possible sense.' So far, that has brought us conversations with the writer Mark Harris about the new Pee-wee Herman documentary and what it means for artists to publicly come out, and with the chef and cookbook author Samin Nosrat about her love-hate relationship with FX's restaurant industry drama 'The Bear.' In an interview, Mr. Morris shared his favorite podcasts and his dream guest for 'Cannonball.' These are edited excerpts from the conversation. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store