Ruth, a farm girl from Honey Creek, Illinois, reviews the events of her life in an effort to make sense of the violence and tragedy that have plagued her and her family from the time she was a child.

When Aaron Maciver's beautiful young wife, Madeline, suffers brain damage in a bike accident, she is left with the intellectual powers of a seven-year-old. In the years that follow, Aaron and his second wife care for Madeline with deep tenderness and devotion as they raise two children of their own. Narrated by Aaron's son Mac, When Madeline Was Young chronicles the Maciver family through the decades, from Mac's childhood growing up in Wisconsin with...

In this intimate, sexy novel, two lesbian couples living next door to each other one summer in cottage country find each of their relationships at a crossroads. One woman celebrates her fiftieth birthday, which causes her to reconsider what she wants out of life and her partner; the other couple are the parents of a new baby, which cannot conceal the turmoil of their relationship. Weekend is a plaintive, moving exploration of the true nature of love--about...

Henry Shaw, a high school senior from an average upper-middle-class Chicago family, discovers that his mother, a pianist, is having an affair when he accidentally reads her E-mail.