Shutter

Longlisted for the National Book Award

Finalist for the 2023 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel

Finalist for the 2023 PEN Open Book Award

Nominated for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel

The Boston Globe Best Books of the Year

An NPR Best Book of the Year

A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year

 

“Haunting.” —The New York Times Book Review

 

“This story is way more than a thriller, more than a ghost story. It is one of family and history, of culture, of past and present, of walking set boundaries and of discovering oneself.” —USA Today

 

“This paranormal police procedural is unusual and multilayered, but what stands out is the gorgeously expressive and propulsive first-person storytelling, which is split between Rita’s present and her past. A former forensic photographer herself, the pictures Emerson paints with words are as vivid as they are brutal.” —Oprah Daily

 

“A haunting thriller, written with exquisite suspense, and filled to the brim with beautiful writing, through the lens of cameras and memory—an ode to photography, written across the landscapes of the Navajo Nation and cityscapes of New Mexico, about what it means to witness and capture death, be captured by it, told unflinchingly by an author who knows what she is doing on every page.” —Tommy Orange, author of There There

 

“A unique perspective on New Mexico and native culture.” —New Mexico PBS

“Emerson touches upon subjects that Diné often are reluctant to raise or discuss in intimate circles, and does so in ways that allows for conversation about death, the possibilities of a spirit world, gifts of second sight, and witchery and evil . . . Yet, we must acknowledge and work through because it is reality, it is more so a coming-of-age story.” —Jennifer Dez Dennetdale, Navajo Times