Joe lives an idyllic life. He needs nothing more than what he has, which is nothing more than a dog and some hills to wander. That is, until it’s all whisked away early one morning, as he’s thrown into his parents’ car, his best friend Corky’s gone missing, and rumor has it something dark is stirring in the family. Joe is about to lose everything he has ever loved yet his parents and older brother won’t tell him why.

In a new town, at a new school, the new guy sticks out: Joe tries to sort through the more painful experiences of life, to find what matters most. With the encouragement of a beautiful, warm-hearted girl named Ellen, Joe may just find the Hope he is so desperately searching for.

Inspired by his true experiences, David Weiskircher writes a moving portrayal of a young man’s journey through finding hope and peace amidst the whirlwind of pain and trauma. A Thin Place shows us a viscerally truthful portrait of an attempt to sift through the agony of loss and the secrets our family refuses to tell us.

This story is one of resilience; of the recovery from what shatters us to our core. A Thin Place can be a useful tool for teachers in helping them build trauma-informed classrooms.