Noel has been building walls since he was five years old — not because he wanted to, but because no one came to take them down.
Told across three voices and three decades, The Distance Between Us follows Noel, Cole, and Ren — three boys who found in each other the belonging their homes never gave them. They grow up, scatter across states, and learn to carry the weight of adulthood. Then comes the birthday Noel decided not to drive home for. Then comes the silence. Then comes the news.

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A quiet, devastating novel about childhood emotional neglect, the friendships that save us, survivor's guilt, and what it means to choose — day after day — to stay. Charlotte Emily writes grief the way it actually feels: not like an event, but like a room you learn to live in.