"McFadden's reissued second novel takes an unflinching look at the corrosive nature of alcoholism . . . This is not a story of easy redemption . . . McFadden writes candidly about the treacherous hold of addiction." —Publishers Weekly "Riveting. . . . So nicely avoids the sentimentality that swirls around the subject matter. I am as impressed by its structural strength as by the searing and expertly imagined scenes." —Toni Morrison, author of...

Abandoned by the alcoholic father who idealized the natural world without imparting any survival skills to his children, three siblings in 1970s New York embark on difficult adult lives before their father attempts a reconciliation.

"The story of the dangerous first love of two young men: Mungo and James. Born under different stars--Mungo a Protestant and James a Catholic--they should be sworn enemies if they're to be seen as men at all. Their environment is a hyper-masculine and sectarian one, for gangs of young men and the violence they might dole out dominate the Glaswegian estate where they live. And yet against all odds Mungo and James become best friends as they find a...

Jillian Slater hadn't seen her father or his mother in almost 20 years until, on the news that her father had finally drunk himself to death, Adella Atwater, the manager of her grandmother's apartment house, calls and says Jillian's expenses would be paid if she'd fly in to New Orleans for the burial. What Adella didn't tell her was that the apartment house bears the dead weight of a long and painful history. As an investigation into her father's...

Growing up in their family's ancestral home in Wales, Jonathan Anthony and his little sister, Theo, are inseparable, inventing magical worlds and buttressing each other against the loneliness of life with their alcoholic mother, Alicia. When a family tragedy brings their glamorous grandmother, Eve, home from America, Jonathan and Theo are initially elated by the attention she lavishes on them. But soon it becomes clear that there is more to the Anthony...

"Cassandra Maxwell has had a life filled with pain. Her mother died too young, her father is an abusive alcoholic, and she's a misfit everywhere she goes. After being shuttled between various foster homes, Cass struggles to find her identity and finds herself caught up with Scott Jones (aka "Sky") and his group of friends who start a Jesus commune in California. But before long, the group is more interested in pot and sex than they are spiritual growth....

"Normal. It's all she's ever wanted to be, but it couldn't be further from her grasp. Dana Hathaway doesn't know it yet, but she's in big trouble. When her alcoholic mom shows up at her voice recital drunk, again, Dana decides she's had enough and runs away to find her mysterious father in Avalon: the only place on Earth where the regular, everyday world and the captivating, magical world of Faerie intersect. But from the moment Dana sets foot in...

A life-threatening illness as a child shows Jenny that her neglectful mother will never take care of her and she spends the next 30 years building a new family until a tragic event causes her two worlds to collide.