‘The Hill’ Finds Transcendence in Familial Bonds

In a coming-of-age novel about a neglected, introspective girl, a train slinks across the floor of an icy glacial lake, having careened off its tracks into the deep water below. A character named Helen abandons a young daughter, and a transient relative named Sylvie steps in, with varying degrees of commitment, to manage her care. An unusual painting, connected to the girl’s grandfather, hangs prominently from a wall, its earnest folk-art outlandishness imparting a note of wry absurdity. Nearby, a letter sits on a kitchen surface, conspicuously unread, as the specter of a transcendental eyeball (or something like it) looks on.