"When you step through The Blue Door, Janice Deal invites you into a world both ordinary and extraordinary, where magic weaves through the fabric of daily life. At its heart is Flo, a wandering spirit and unconventional seeker, whose quest to unravel a shattering family tragedy leaves her estranged, misunderstood, yet fiercely resilient.... Deal masterfully blends the mundane with the mythical, creating a tale that lingers long after the final page."

--Julie E. Justicz

"This seemingly simple story of a woman trying to come to terms with her daughter's horrendous crime turns into an otherworldly reflection on how to be in the world and what matters--and it is deeply moving and marvelous in every sense of the word."

--Ellen Akins

"In Janice Deal's mercurial meditation on the power of language and story, one woman's quest for her lost dog through a desert town becomes an epic adventure. With delightful prose and rich characterization Deal renders the quotidian with an acuity that charms these pages to life: walking sticks are wizard staffs, dogs are gods, and blue doors offer passageways to alternate worlds. Yet when ghosts of memory weigh as heavily as the desert heat, how does one find grace, forgiveness, and hope in a world beset with relentless reminders of our past pain? Open The Blue Door to find a way."

--Jeremy T. Wilson

"The poetry of this novel delighted me. In transparent, unpretentious prose, Janice Deal taps the visceral peril of parenthood--how the role of Mother envelops and entraps the former self, how a creator is enmeshed with her creation--from this side of a beckoning blue door that opens onto an alternate life."

--Elizabeth Mosier

"The Blue Door weaves together past, present, future with a potent fairy tale ... to create a luminous story that is heartbreaking, full of heart, and unforgettable."

--Lynn Sloan

"It is a mother's challenge to let her child go into the world and find a separate life. But what if that child has committed a savage crime, forcing this separation? 'I am your blind spot, ' Teddy says to her mother, Flo.... Over the space of a day, Flo embarks on a quest to find her dog while meditating on love and forgiveness, on loneliness and connection. In this beautiful short novel, Janice Deal leaves us thunderstruck yet hopeful in the face of despair."

--Jan English Leary

"In The Blue Door, we follow the stalwart Flo on a memorable and, at times, mystical quest for comfort and connection. I was gripped by every step of Flo's journey, but especially her brave willingness to confront the darkness of the past in the hope of emerging on the other side. Never has Janice Deal's writing been deeper or more luminous."

--Katherine Shonk

"Janice Deal's The Blue Door is a luminous, soul-stirring novel that blends the mundane and the mythical to explore the weight of guilt, the bonds of love, and the search for meaning in a fractured world.

At the heart of the novel is Flo, a mother navigating grief, regret, and longing as she prepares for a reunion with her estranged and troubled daughter, Teddy. Flo's physical journey throughout the story, to find her missing dog, mirrors an inner pilgrimage, turning a simple walk through a desert town into a profound exploration of the human condition. The people she encounters along the way and her memories--both uplifting and unsettling--add texture to her journey, while the echoes of an old family folktale infuse the narrative with a timeless, almost mythic resonance. With spare and evocative prose, Deal perfectly captures the harsh beauty of the desert landscape and the rich emotional terrain of her protagonist."

--Kate Brandes

"On a long search in the desert to find a runaway canine, Flo reviews her past, especially her relationship to Teddy, her estranged daughter who has written to say she's coming for a visit. How did they get to here? The Blue Door is about finding one's place in the world while life keeps adding up. With her signature grace and merciful eye, Deal sticks a glorious, complicated landing where next steps beckon."

--James Magruder

"The Blue Door follows Flo, the mother of a deeply-troubled daughter, on a one-day odyssey through the alien landscapes of her new hometown. Flo's humility and quiet courage, not to mention her capacity for endurance, make for a thrilling read. As she propels herself through the bright, parched desert city, her story, both past and future, takes on the shimmer of a truly magical spiritual journey. Charles Baxter once said, 'You must love your characters, and visit trouble upon them, ' and Janice Deal does exactly that, with pitch-perfect tenderness, humor and clarity. Flo is unforgettable, and the climax of the story is both surprising and inevitable. A beauty of a novel."

--Marjorie Sandor

Publisher: New Door Books

Pub date: 2025-04-22

Length: 196 pages