A collection of nine darkly playful and moving stories about women who - at their darkest and loneliest times - discover what is worth loving in the world.
Populated by misfits and misanthropes, bickering sisters, responsible daughters, and unhappy wives, the stories in Emma Duffy-Comparone's collection challenge us in the face of abandonment, illness, and tragedy to look at the world with wonder and amusement.
Here, one woman on the brink of becoming a stepmother wonders whether she can love the eight-year-old boy (the Kid) who has a stranglehold on her boyfriend's affections. Another grapples with how to build a life after sickening trauma for which she is responsible. A sister visits her brother, only to watch him live through a gruesome accident. In these stories, Duffy-Comparone does not shy away from suffering - nor does she disguise the experiences that can accompany horror: deep humor or searing unpredictable beauty.
Slyly, wickedly funny, and brimming with truth, she writes about family - biological, chosen, and decidedly not-chosen - with audacity, withering sharpness, and heart.
