"A wrenching, luminous memoir" of how betrayal and divorce transformed two families and the lives of two young women (People).
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. Spanning from Australia to the United States, it is "enormously compelling . . . [A] harrowing journey of identity" (Publishers Weekly, starred review).
About the Author :
Jane Alison is the author of three novels: The Love-Artist, The Marriage of the Sea, and Natives and Exotics. She teaches in the MFA programs at the University of Miami and Queens University in Charlotte.
Review :
"Affecting and profound . . . With remarkable grace and insight, [Alison] examines early upheavals and unfortunate tensions in her most unusual upbringing." --San Francisco Chronicle "A brave and beautiful piece of work . . . A book you will think about long after you put it down." --Elizabeth Strout, #1 New York Times-bestselling author
