Introducing The Mountains May Depart: A Novel About What Survives After Everything Breaks

Unsolicited Press is honored to introduce Ryan Rickrode’s debut novel, The Mountains May Depart, a quiet, harrowing, and deeply humane story set against the rugged beauty of Missoula, Montana.

Six months have passed since Dan and Sarah lost their young son in a tragic car accident. Both want desperately to hold their marriage together. Both think they are failing. Dan runs before sunrise, chasing relief from guilt and longing while grappling with feelings he never expected to have. Sarah turns to prayer, begging a God who will not speak back. Her grief has opened a terrible door: maybe leaving is the only loving thing she can do.

What unfolds is not loud or melodramatic; it’s intimate, raw, and painfully recognizable. Rickrode writes with the emotional precision of someone who understands how grief reshapes a life molecule by molecule. The novel asks a question many fear to voice: What happens when two people who love each other are grieving in entirely different languages?

A finalist and honorable mention for multiple fiction prizes and previously featured in The Windhover, The Mountains May Depart announces a writer who is unafraid to enter the rooms where love and loss coexist.

We invite readers to step into this unforgettable story today.