The long-awaited and highly praised second novel by the author of Stones for Ibarra. The American characters here find themselves waiting, hoping, and living in rural Mexico-a land with the power to enchant, repulse, captivate, and change all who pass through it. Named a Best Book of the Year by Publishers Weekly and a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times.

The bestselling tale-powerful, compassionate, humorous-of the three Lovejoy sisters reunited in their hometown of Mulberry, Georgia, on the occasion of their mother s death. As the emotionally scarred Lovejoys prepare for their mother s funeral, the spirit of the selfish and manipulative Mudear hovers above them, complaining about her daughters ugly ways in death as she did in life.
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Compassionate understanding and humor illuminate this understated yet dazzling work (Publishers Weekly)-a compelling parable in which two sisters find, among the neglected virtues of the past, a sustenance to carry them into the future. A fine, unnerving little hermeneutic of love (Village Voice).
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As she struggles to move from antagonism to common ground with Miss Xenobia Kezee, her sick, elderly, cantankerous mother-in-law, Paula Johnson confronts her own mother s death and her husband s detachment from the emotional life of his family.
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A novel that vividly brings to life the inherently adversarial nature of the mother-daughter relationship and its yearnings. "This strong, thoughtful first novel...develops with quiet momentum" (Publishers Weekly). Named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times. Harvest American Writing series