When Jane Alison was a child, her family met another that seemed like its mirror. Each had a father in the Foreign Service, a beautiful mother, and two little girls. The younger two-one of them Jane-even shared a birthday. With so much in common, the two families quickly became inseparable. Within months, affairs had ignited between the adults, and before long the pairs had exchanged partners-divorced, remarried, and moved on. As if in a cataclysm of nature, two families were ripped asunder, and two new ones were formed. Two pairs of girls were left in shock, a "silent, numb shock, like a crack inside stone, not enough to split it but inside, quietly fissuring." And Jane and her stepsister were thrown into a state of wordless combat for the love of their fathers. This true story of their rivalry, and the tragic loss that ultimately followed, is a fascinating record of how adult behavior can shape, or shatter, a childhood.
