Namwali Serpell's novel The Furrows is ultimately about how grief and trauma radically alters a person's life. After Wayne has an accident which ultimately causes him to die, his family understandably begins to grieve. The novel also thematically explores how people must contend with grief, dealing with abandonment, the connective tissue of family (and how it's broken), mental illness, and perhaps most significantly, the tragedies and pitfalls of memory. And it explores those themes in an exceptionally empathetic, energizing, but serious and solemn way.
In many ways The Furrows is structured like the stages of grief. Denial occurs when everyone in the family denies that Wayne died. Instead, they say that they can't find him and that he has likely disappeared. Because of his denial, Wayne and Cassandra's father leaves their family and starts their own. He does this in a fit of rage and anger. Next, the family goes through the "bargaining" stage. In this step, Cassandra and Wayne's mother creates the agency to look for lost kids. She will do anything to keep her son alive. Then, Cassandra and the rest of her family go through the "depression" stage. For Cassandra, this stage takes the form of her seeing her brother everywhere, depressed at his lost. But after meeting a man who she thinks look like Wayne, she goes through the final stage of the grieving process, which is acceptance. She accepts that her brother has died.
Cassandra Williams is twelve years old, and her younger brother Wayne is seven. They have an unbreakable bond, rooted in their strong relationship, and are inseparable. One day, while playing together, an accident takes place and Wayne goes missing. Despite the efforts of Cassandra's family and authorities, Wayne's body is never found.
The disappearance of Wayne shatters Cassandra's family. Her father abandons the family and starts a new one with another woman, while her mother becomes consumed with grief and devotes her life to finding missing children through her organization. This leaves Cassandra to deal with her sorrow alone, as her mother is physically present but mentally absent. Cassandra begins to see Wayne's face everywhere she goes: on airplanes, in stores, and in the subway.
Years have passed since Wayne's disappearance, and Cassandra initially does not believe the faces she is seeing are truly her brother. However, she meets a man who looks remarkably like Wayne, who reveals that he shares many similarities with Cassandra and is searching for his place in the world. This man's name is Wayne, which leads Cassandra to believe it could be her brother. They have conversations and learn about each other's lives, but eventually Cassandra realizes that her experience is a manifestation of her grief, and that Wayne is most likely dead and will not return.
