Breathing Lessons covers the events of a day in the life of Maggie Moran, married to Ira and with two children. Her eternal optimism and her passion for sorting out other people's lives and willing them to fall in love is put to the test.

Barnaby Gaitlin is a loser. Just short of 30, he's the black sheep of a philanthropic Baltimore family with an ex-wife, a daughter with attitude, and an unreliable classic car. The author of Breathing Lessons looks at love and families.

When young Jamie Pike dies in a tragic accident, she leaves behind a family numbed with grief and torn with guilt and recrimination. Here, the author explores how each member of the family learns to face the future in their own way.

After losing her husband in a car accident, Rebecca asks herself whether she is an imposter in her own life. Is she really the joyous and outgoing celebrator that her family think she is?

In the bank, thirty-five year old Charlotte Emory withdraws enough money to escape a life and a marriage gone sour. But Charlotte is about to escape in a way she never expected, as a young bank robber takes her hostage, and they head south for Florida in a stolen car.

From the incomparable Anne Tyler, a rich and compelling novel, spanning three generations, about a mismatched marriage - and its consequences. Michael and Pauline seemed like the perfect couple - young, good-looking, made for each other.

Having sacked her handyman, the newly, widowed Mrs Emerson quickly finds a replacement in Elizabeth. The Emersons have a reputation for their craziness, and Elizabeth finds herself drawn into their disorderly lives against her will.

Jeremy is a child-like, painfully shy batchelor who has never left home. He lives on the third floor of his mother's boarding house and spends his days cutting up coloured paper to make mosaic sculptures - until the day his mother dies and the beautiful Mary Tell arrives to turn his world upside down.

In a small Southern town, teenager Evie Decker becomes obsessed with local rock singer Bertram 'Drumstrings' Casey, and decides to take her life into her own hands. When she carves his name on her forehead, their two lives become unforgettably entwined.

Morgan Gower has an outsize hairy beard, an array of peculiar costumes and fantastic headwear, and a smoking habit. He likes to pretend to be other people - a jockey, a shipping magnate, a foreign art dealer - and he likes to do this more and more since his brood of daughters are all growing up, getting married and finding him embarrassing.