The Dig: A Novel

Summary

When Sarajevo-born siblings Antonia and Paul were adopted by a wealthy Midwestern family in the 1990s, a series of events with deadly consequences was set in motion. Now, with her career on the line and her idealistic brother missing, Antonia must race against the clock to uncover a sinister secret and prevent history from repeating itself.

Antonia King has a complicated relationship with the past. She and her brother were found amid the rubble of a bombed-out apartment in Sarajevo and taken in by a family of contractors in Thebes, Minnesota. Eager to escape the constraints of her adopted town, Antonia embarks on a high-powered legal career. But it isn't long before her brother's mysterious disappearance pulls her back home. There, over the course of a single day, Antonia unearths decades of secrets and lies, leading to shocking revelations about her adoptive family—and the sinister truth behind her biological mother's death—that will alter the course of her life and change her definition of family forever.

Informed by timely issues of immigration, capitalism, and justice, yet timeless in its themes of love, identity, and competing loyalties, The Dig, inspired by the Greek tragedy Antigone, portrays a woman at odds with her history, forced to choose between her own ambitions and her loyalty to her beloved, idealistic brother.