Critical Praise

"Hypnotic . . . [A] beautiful gasp of a book."

——Judith Warner, The Washington Post

"No novel I've read in recent years conveys with greater accuracy, intensity, and artistry the agonies of grief . . . As with any work of breathtaking prose, the effect is exhilarating."

——Dan Cryer, Newsday

"Affecting . . . A wonderfully observed portrait of a family fractured and fragmented by grief . . . The delicate emotional fabric of the narrative [is] meticulously woven."

——Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

"Exquisite . . . The reader watches, in genuine suspense, the struggles of the [novel's three main characters] . . . A master of limited third-person narration, [Dennis McFarland] completely absorbs us . . . The language here is always apt [and] McFarland writes with such integrity about Sarah, Deckard, and Harry that the reader can't help sharing their proud, exclusionary grief. Their actions are true. We care enormously about these people . . . Above all, we come to experience the logic of mourning . . . McFarland's view is focused, and it is also deep."

——Allegra Goodman, The New York Times Book Review