"This is the happiest story in the world with the saddest ending," writes Elizabeth McCracken in her powerful, inspiring memoir. A prize-winning, successful novelist in her 30s, McCracken was happy to be an itinerant writer and self-proclaimed spinster. But suddenly she fell in love, got married, and two years ago was living in a remote part of France, working on her novel, and waiting for the birth of her first child.
This book is about what happened next. In her ninth month of pregnancy, she learned that her baby boy had died. How do you deal with and recover from this kind of loss? Of...

One of Dickens's greatest works, "Bleak House" features a handsome new package, with a new Introduction and an Afterword by acclaimed author McCracken. Revised reissue.

WINNER OF THE STORY PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD NAMED ONE OF THE TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY NEWSDAY

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
The Washington Post San Francisco Chronicle O: The Oprah Magazine The Miami Herald Publishers Weekly Kirkus Reviews

Look for special features inside. Join the Random House Reader s Circle for author chats and more.
From the author of the beloved novel The Giant s House finalist for the National Book Award comes a beautiful new story collection, her first in...

Few of us will agree with the English woman that the child, the American child, is the only subject upon which we converse. Certainly, though, it is a favorite subject; it may even not inaptly be called our national subject. Whatever our various views concerning this may chance to be, however, it is likely that we are all in entire agreement with regard to the other matter touched upon by the English woman, --the pervasiveness of American children