First published 1995
Family members gather around kitchen tables and living rooms, their conversations heavy with unspoken histories. Lewis presents characters who navigate the complicated terrain between generations, where old wounds meet new hopes. A grandmother shares stories that bridge decades of silence. Adult children return home to find their parents changed, or unchanged in ways that surprise them. Siblings confront shared memories that each recalls differently. These men and women struggle to understand their place within families that have weathered migration, loss, and transformation. They seek meaning in moments both ordinary and charged with emotion. The stories reveal how people learn to love despite disappointment, how they find ways to forgive what cannot be forgotten. Lewis shows families as they really are: imperfect, resilient, bound together by ties that stretch but rarely break. His characters discover that connection often comes through accepting rather than changing each other.
Genres: fiction, family, literary-fiction, contemporary
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-dynamics, found-family
Period: 20th-Century, 21st-Century
Paperback · Blair