ESTUARY opens in the disorienting aftermath of loss: Megan Mostly nearly collapses when she finds her son, Lincoln, awake and watching television in the middle of the night—despite the fact that his funeral was only a week ago.
As if grief weren’t enough, Stephen Tremble appears at her door the day before, asking an impossible question: was Lincoln his son? For six years, Megan has lived inside a carefully constructed lie. Now it’s cracking open.
Stephen, newly returned to Atlanta, is unraveling too. After a fire exposes the hoarded remains of his isolated life, he clings to the one object that survived—a diary he can never seem to lose. Inside it, he finds an entry he doesn’t remember writing. It speaks of a child he never knew existed.
As Megan is drawn into a series of unsettling encounters with a mysterious woman who appears without warning, delivering cryptic messages that seem to echo Lincoln’s presence, Stephen grapples with the fury and grief of a father too late to love.
Pulled together by secrets, loss, and a child who refuses to stay gone, Megan and Stephen must confront their pasts where memory and longing converge—at the estuary between what was, what is, and what still refuses to let go.
ESTUARY opens in the disorienting aftermath of loss: Megan Mostly nearly collapses when she finds her son, Lincoln, awake and watching television in the middle of the night—despite the fact that his funeral was only a week ago.
As if grief weren’t enough, Stephen Tremble appears at her door the day before, asking an impossible question: was Lincoln his son? For six years, Megan has lived inside a carefully constructed lie. Now it’s cracking open.
Stephen, newly returned to Atlanta, is unraveling too. After a fire exposes the hoarded remains of his isolated life, he clings to the one object that survived—a diary he can never seem to lose. Inside it, he finds an entry he doesn’t remember writing. It speaks of a child he never knew existed.
As Megan is drawn into a series of unsettling encounters with a mysterious woman who appears without warning, delivering cryptic messages that seem to echo Lincoln’s presence, Stephen grapples with the fury and grief of a father too late to love.
Pulled together by secrets, loss, and a child who refuses to stay gone, Megan and Stephen must confront their pasts where memory and longing converge—at the estuary between what was, what is, and what still refuses to let go.
Josh Rank keeps himself busy putting together ugly woodworking projects, cooking for his wife, and wishing his dogs were better behaved. Learn more about his previous books The Present Is Past (Unsolicited Press, 2023) and Chance to Fade & Other Stories (Running Wild Press, 2025) at www.joshrank.com.
Genre: FICTION
ISBN: 978-1-963115-84-0
Publication Date: June 23, 2026
