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‘Packer’s golden touch makes us care that much more deeply for this memorable tribe’ Elle

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‘Psychologically astute … this is a novel with something to teach about forgiving the people we love’ Newsday

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‘Packer's portrayal of one family's breakdown is tragic and utterly engrossing’ O, The Oprah Magazine

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‘Absorbing … celebrates family even as it catalogues its damages’ People Magazine

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'Packer is an expert American realist at every level, from the interior monologue to the bird’s-eye view' Vulture

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‘A big heavily plotted family saga to dive into and savour: deftly written, at times, funny, and always psychologically astute’ NPR

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‘A superb storyteller … Packer’s dissection of domestic life reminds me of her elders in the field Anne Tyler and Louise Erdrich’ San Francisco Chronicle

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‘In shimmering prose and with exceptional wisdom, Ann Packer examines the life of a California family … revealing the ways in which the past casts both shadow and light on the present … a provocative, dazzling novel from a world-class fiction writer’ Christina Baker Kline, author of The Exiles

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‘Beautiful … shows us how much of our adult identity has been fully formed in childhood … [Packer's] mastery of story make us identify with and deeply care for her characters’ Abraham Verghese, author of The Covenant of Water

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‘Packer flawlessly executes the most daring, difficult and exhilarating feat in the novelist's repertoire: to re-create the history of an era and a place through the history of one family … pulling it off with mastery, authority and all the passionate artistry that lovers of her work have come to expect’ Michael Chabon, author of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay

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‘Tender, absorbing … painfully captures the tumult of selves within a family’ Catherine Newman, author of Sandwich

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