From the National Book Award finalist and the New York Times bestselling author of THE YEAR WE LEFT HOME comes a moving family saga about three generations of women who struggle to find freedom and happiness in their small Midwestern college town.

A CLOUD IN THE SHAPE OF A GIRL is a poignant novel about three generations of the Wise family --- Evelyn, Laura and Grace --- as they hunt for contentment amid chaos of their own making.

We see these women and their trials, small and large: social slights and heartbreaks; marital disappointments and infidelities; familial dysfunction; mortality. Spanning from World War II to the present, Jean Thompson reveals a matrilineal love story that is so perfectly grounded in our time --- a story of three women regressing, stalling, and yes, evolving, over decades. One of the burning questions she asks is: By serving her family, is a woman destined to repeat the mistakes of previous generations, or can she transcend the expectations of a place, and a time? Can she truly be free?

Evelyn, Laura and Grace are the glue that binds their family together. Tethered to their small Midwestern town --- by choice or chance --- Thompson seamlessly weaves together the stories of the Wise women with humanity and elegance, through their heartbreaks, setbacks, triumphs and tragedies.