A beautifully wrought story of an ad hoc family and the crisis they must overcome together Edith is a widowed landlady who rents apartments in her Brooklyn brownstone to an unlikely collection of humans all deeply in need of shelter Crippled in various waysmdashin spirit in mind in body in heartmdashthe renters struggle to navigate daily existence and soon come to realize that Edithrsquos deteriorating mind and the menacing presence of her estranged unscrupulous son Owen is the greatest challenge they must confront together Faced with eviction by Owen and his designs on the building the tenantsmdashPaulie an unusually disabled man and his burdened sister Claudia Edward a misanthropic stand-up comic Adeleine a beautiful agoraphobe Thomas a young artist recovering from a strokemdashmust find in one another what the world has not yet offered or has taken from them family respite security worth love The threat to their home scatters them far from where theyrsquove begun to an ascetic commune in Northern California the motel rooms of depressed middle America and a stunning natural phenomenon in Tennessee endangering their lives and their visions of themselves along the way With humanity humor grace and striking prose Kathleen Alcott portrays these unforgettable characters in their search for connection for a life worth living for home.
