In Casey Scieszka's harrowing yet entrancing debut novel, The Fountain, it's 2014 and a 213-year-old Vera Van Valkenburgh has returned for the first time to where she grew up in the 1800s. She's accepted a forest ranger job in the Catskills Preserve after what she says is a stint out west working at Joshua Tree. What no one in her small town suspects is that Vera stopped aging at 26 and has a death wish that she unfortunately cannot fulfill, no matter how hard she tries. She rents a cottage adjacent to the home her father built, where a Brooklyn-turned-upstate couple now dwell. They rope her into plans to build and open a cidery in her family's old barn, but Vera's burning desire is to find the key to her immortality so she can finally open the lock chaining her to endless life. Vera suspects water is what caused her, her brother, and their mother to become immortal, so she begins a series of experiments. Soon, however, Vera's brother unexpectedly arrives in town with a companion who seeks what Vera seeks, but for very different reasons.
Scieszka owns the Spruceton Inn in West Kill, N.Y., and imbues her setting with the textures and frictions of the region, such as longtime locals clashing with newly arrived former city folk. The mysteries and twists compound in this fascinating historical fantasy about longevity quests and how to live a life of meaning and purpose in a world that contains so much pain. --Nina Semczuk, writer, editor, and illustrator