Pulitzer Prize and PEN/Faulkner finalist Joanna Scott offers a moving, powerful, and beautifully written glimpse into the world of a remarkable child adrift in the wake of tragedy.

When four-year-old Bo is orphaned in the car accident that kills his mother, he becomes the focus of a fierce custody struggle between his two sets of very different grandparents. As the grownups play out their secret desires, hidden resentments, and stubborn self-righteousness, Bo finds himself at the mercy of a fallible adult world. With a child's perfect but partial understanding, he flees into himself - away from the sea of strangers - where he inhabits as eerie inner landscape filled with the dreamlike intensity unique to the imagination of a child.

Moving with muted elegance and power between the points of view of Bo and his grandparents, Joanna Scott investigates the vulnerability of a child's developing sense of self and the effect of the world upon it. Here is a writer in full command of her craft, who sheds a breathtaking light on the intimate interconnectedness of even the most imperfect humans. Less gothic than her previous books, yet sure to garner the same remarkable praise, Make Believe is psychologically wise and complex tale of resilience in the face of human frailty.