Canadian-American Bobbie Jean Huff studied music in the United States and France, but it wasn’t until she moved to Canada that she began writing. Since childhood she had wanted to write a novel, but for decades wrote only short stories, poetry and essays.

The plot for THE ONES WE KEEP was sparked when she was returning to a Vermont family resort where she and her family had been staying. She looked across the lake to the dock, where children were playing, and asked herself, What if?

THE ONES WE KEEP took three years to write. It was shortlisted for the 2019 Dzanc Prize for Fiction and was a semi-finalist in the William Faulkner-William Wisdom 2019 Creative Writing Competition.

A recipient of grants from the Canada Council and the Ontario Arts Council, and first prize winner of a cross-Canada short fiction competition, Bobbie Jean has written for various publications, including The Globe and Mail, Quarry, Event, Queen’s Quarterly, Room of One’s Own, Queen’s Alumni Review, Anthos and the New Ohio Review.

Bobbie Jean lives in Pennington, New Jersey. She has recently completed her second novel, working title OLIVIA, TURNING, and is currently working on her third.

Books by Bobbie Jean Huff

The Ones We Keep

by Bobbie Jean Huff - Fiction, Women's Fiction

A quiet lakeside resort in Vermont seems like the perfect summer getaway for Olivia and Harry Somerville and their three young boys. But in a single moment, their idyllic family retreat becomes a mother's worst nightmare. Returning from a solo hike one afternoon, Olivia learns from a passing stranger that one of her sons has drowned --- but not which one. In that moment, Olivia makes a panicked decision that will change her family forever. If she never knows which son has drowned, can Olivia convince herself that none of them have? By shielding herself from reality, can she continue to live in a world where all three boys are still alive?