First published 2019
Marilyn Connolly and David Sorenson have sustained their passionate marriage for forty years, but their four daughters struggle to find similar happiness. Wendy drowns her widowhood in alcohol and casual relationships. Violet left her law career to raise children, only to watch her buried past emerge and trigger crushing anxiety. Liza teaches at a university but feels trapped by an unwanted pregnancy with a man she questions loving. Grace, the youngest, constructs elaborate deceptions that fool her entire family. The family's careful equilibrium shatters when Jonah Bendt arrives in 2016. One daughter gave him up for adoption fifteen years earlier in a closed arrangement. His presence forces each sister to confront old rivalries and hidden resentments. The parents who seemed to have everything figured out reveal their own history of mistakes and betrayals. As the Sorensons navigate this explosive year, they discover whether the moments of transcendent joy in their shared past can overcome decades of accumulated pain and whether any of the daughters can build the lasting love their parents found.
Genres: domestic-fiction, american-fiction, contemporary, adult-fiction, 21st-century, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
Period: 2016
532 pages · Hardcover · Doubleday