The Past Is Never

A Novel

By: Tiffany Quay Tyson

Narrated by: Devon Sorvari

Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

Siblings Bert, Willet, and Pansy know better than to go swimming at the old rock quarry. According to their father, it's the Devil's place, a place that's been cursed and forgotten. But Mississippi Delta summer days are scorching hot, and they can't resist cooling off in the dark, bottomless water - until the day six-year-old Pansy vanishes...not drowned, not lost, simply gone. When their father disappears as well, Bert and Willet leave their childhoods behind to try and hold their broken family together.

Years pass with no sign, no hope of ever finding Pansy alive, and as surely as their mother died of a broken heart, Bert and Willet can't move on. So when clues surface drawing them to the remote tip of Florida, they drop everything and drive south. Deep in the murky depths of the Florida Everglades, they may find the answer to Pansy's mysterious disappearance...but truth, like the past, is sometimes better left where it lies.

©2018 Tiffany Quay Tyson (P)2020 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Critic reviews

WINNER of the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction
WINNER of the Mississippi Author Award for Adult Fiction selected by the Mississippi Library Association
WINNER of the 2019 Mississippi Institute of Arts & Letters Award for Fiction
WINNER of the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize for Fiction
Finalist for the 2019 Colorado Book Awards for Literary Fiction

Mysteries resolved as the future is revealed

I enjoyed following the easy narrative of a story describing the assembly of a life puzzle.

Everglades City, Florida

This Northerner really liked this Southern Gothic tale. I finished it earlier today and I have already sent texts recommending it to three people I know. I will be thinking about this book for a long time to come.

I listened to the book on Audible and thought the narration was very good. The narrator’s southern accent sounded natural.

Half the book takes place in the Florida Everglades and that made it more special to me since I have spent quite a bit of time there and recognized the landmarks such as Smallwood Store, and know some of the history such as the federal raid on drug dealers.

This novel reminds me of The Little Friend by Donna Tartt because of the rural southern setting and the plot. In that book, a young boy is murdered and the family falls completely apart in the aftermath. Here, a young girl goes missing and the family totally disintegrates.

Parts of The Past is Never were slow and I felt a little bored by the repetitive scenes, such as Mama lying in bed chain smoking and drinking sweet tea. Overall I was engaged and invested in the characters and their fate.

Intriguing Southern gothic tale

The Past is Never is a wonderful "slow burn" of a mystery. It hooked me early and kept me interested until the very end.

Tyson's prose and storytelling are top-notch, matchef by Sorvani's exquisite narration. Every character vividly comes to life as the story unfolds across years.

Highly recommended if you're a fan of Southern gothic lit.

The reader!

Am I the only one who thinks this book was read all wrong? Every intonation! Forced myself to read through to almost the end of chapter 2; skipped to the last chapter to see if maybe I didn’t give it a chance. Nope. I wasted my investment. If I was more interested, I’d buy a copy and read it the way I THINK it was written. But. I could be wrong. And then, I would kick myself. 🥴