From Booklist Ana's mother， Min， is a mystery to her--a beautiful woman， always in a haze. She is secretive and carelessly inattentive to her children. Min's dreamy absence intensifies when her youngest child accidentally dies. Ana， with her brother， Theo， is sent away to stay with her grandma and aunt. Set in 1940 on a small Canadian farm that borders an Indian reservation， the story chronicles the coming-of-age of 16-year-old Ana as she tries to make sense of the confusion around her. She finds herself obsessed with a girl's disappearance， which ignites racial tensions in her small community. At the same time， Ana feels the first stirrings of love for an Indian boy and begins to wrestle with the implications of her desires. The spare， elegant narration alternates between Ana and Min， interspersed with discussions of the revealing photographs taken by Theo of the women in their private moments. Although MacPherson struggles at times， allowing her characters to meander in a romantic albeit lyrical haze， her assured， sensual debut reveals much about the secrets women keep and the hidden desires that propel us to action and stop us in our tracks. Misha StoneCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Book Description When She Was Electric is an evocative portrait of a family and a small town torn apart by losses. At the heart of this subtle， textured novel is a wrenching disruption - the death of a young girl in a sleepy town. The book tells the story of three generations of women: the resourceful grandmother who turned unwanted land into a thriving enterprise; the daughters， ethereal Min and bold Nellie， who grew up challenging polite conventions; and Ana， the granddaughter who embodies the hopes - and secrets - of this formidable matriarchy. MacPherson brilliantly reveals the hazy unreliability of memory， the fragility of life， and how a child's grave haunts a family and a splintered town.