In this sensuous, funny, and heartbreaking new book, Amy Bloom explores the unexpected patterns that all forms of love and loss weave into our lives. With her dazzling prose, strong voice, and unmistakable and generous wit, this award-winning author takes us to the margins and centers of real peoplea (TM)s lives, introducing us to some of her most unforgettable characters yet. A young woman struggles to come to terms with her roommatea (TM)s murder; a man and his daughter-in-law confess their sins in the most unlikely of places. In one set of interlocking stories, two middle-aged friends, married to others, find themselves surprisingly, comically drawn to one another, risking all for all and never underestimating the costs. In another, we follow a mother and son for thirty years as their small and uncertain family becomes an irresistible tribe.