The Underside of Joy

The compelling story of two women, bound
by an unspeakable loss, who each claims to
be the mother of the same two children.

To Ella Beene, happiness means living in the northern California river town of Elbow
with her husband, Joe, and his two young children. Yet one summer day Joe breaks his
own rule-never turn your back on the ocean-and a sleeper wave strikes him down,
drowning not only the man but his many secrets.
For three years, Ella has been the only mother the kids have known and has
believed that their biological mother, Paige, abandoned them. But when Paige shows
up at the funeral, intent on reclaiming the children, Ella soon realizes there may be
more to Paige and Joe's story. "Ella's the best thing that's happened to this family,"
say her close-knit Italian-American in-laws, for generations the proprietors of a local
market. But their devotion quickly falters when the custody fight between mother and
stepmother urgently and powerfully collides with Ella's quest for truth.
The Underside of Joy is not a fairy-tale version of stepmotherhood pitting good
Ella against evil Paige, but an exploration of the complex relationship of two mothers.
Their conflict uncovers a map of scars-both physical and emotional-to the families'
deeply buried tragedies, including Italian internment camps during World War II and
postpartum psychosis.
Weaving a rich fictional tapestry abundantly alive with the glorious natural beauty
of the novel's setting, Halverson is a captivating guide through the flora and fauna of
human emotion-grief and anger, shame and forgiveness, happiness and its shadow
complement . . . the underside of joy.

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