All of Us Together in the End

Vollmer’s family memoir, shimmering with wonder and enchantment, begins with the death of his mother from early-onset Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Soon after, unexplained phenomena (specifically flashing lights and floating orbs) appear in the woods surrounding his family’s home in rural North Carolina, where his widowed father lives. Formative memories resurge in Vollmer’s mind, particularly from his childhood in the church of Seventh-day Adventism, hastening self-reexamination and reckoning. A retired geology professor corresponds with him about “ghost lights,” which supposedly occur more in North Carolina than any other American state. An eccentric shaman who lives in Spain administers transcendental psychotherapy to him over Zoom. And Jolene emerges, a woman endeared for decades to Vollmer’s father, holding secrets to their family’s past.