"An elegant and moving novel." --"The New Yorker ""A tender, insightful, and winning exploration of the modern family and the infinite number of shapes it can take." --"People" "Sophisticated and surprising. . . . Luminous." --"San Francisco Chronicle" "The only regret you'll have at the end of this particular story is that it's over." --"Entertainment Weekly" "Breathtaking. . . . Heartfelt. . . . What makes this novel so fresh is its notion that the need to know where we come from isn't limited to our formative years. And that all buried secrets are bittersweet when revealed." --"Minneapolis Star Tribune" "An exquisitely detailed novel." --"O, The Oprah Magazine" "An engrossing read." --"Newsday" "This memento mori is as much about the teeming, glad business of life as it is about grief--'the bright blessed day, ' as the Louis Armstrong song puts it, as well as the dark sacred night." --"The Washington Post" "Glass' prose is so lovely and filled with felicitous phrases and insights that when she orchestrates a family reunion, the reader is apt to just follow along like Kit, knowing the music is bound to enthrall." --"The Dallas Morning News" "The delight of reading Julia Glass turns out to be the connections we make with her generous characters, who become as endearing--and exasperating--as the people we love in real life." --"The Miami Herald" "Wretched and wonderful--indeed, dark yet sacred." --"BookPage" "Glass explores the pain of family secrets, the importance of identity, and the ultimate meaning of family. . . . [A] lovely, highly readable, and thought-provoking novel." --"Booklist" (starred)

Julia Glass is the author of" Three Junes, " winner of the 2002 National Book Award for Fiction; "The Whole World Over; I See You Everywhere, "winner of the 2009 Binghamton University John Gardner Book Award; and "The Widower's Tale." Her essays have been widely anthologized. A recipient of fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Glass also teaches fiction writing, most frequently at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. She lives with her family in Marblehead, Massachusetts.