Welcome to the most tumultuous summer of the twentieth century. It's 1969, and for the Levin family, the times are a-changing. Every year, the children have looked forward to spending the summer at their grandmother's historic home in downtown Nantucket. But like so much else in America, nothing is the same this year: Blair, the eldest sister, is stranded in Boston, pregnant with twins and unable to travel. Middle sister Kirby, caught up in the thrilling...

"An enthralling novel about love, loss, secrets, friendship, and the healing power of literature, by the bestselling author of The Knitting Circle. Ava's twenty-five-year marriage has fallen apart, and her two grown children are pursuing their own lives outside of the country. Ava joins a book group, not only for her love of reading but also out of sheer desperation for companionship. The group's goal throughout the year is for each member to present...

"For sisters Samantha and Ella Mitchell, Christmas is their most precious time of the year. But this year, they'll be buying presents for the most unexpected guest of all--their mother. It's been five years since they last saw each other. But when their mom calls out of the blue, Samantha and Ella cautiously agree to spend Christmas all together in the beautiful Scottish Highlands... Gayle Mitchell is at the top of her career, but her success has...

Reverend John Ames is dying in 1956 in Gilead, Iowa, and he in recording his family's story. Glory Boughton has returned to care for her dying father and soon her brother, Jack, the prodigal son, comes home, too.

Meet the Cooke family: Mother and Dad, brother Lowell, sister Fern, and our narrator, Rosemary, who begins her story in the middle. She has her reasons. "I spent the first eighteen years of my life defined by this one fact: that I was raised with a chimpanzee," she tells us. "Its never going to be the first thing I share with someone. I tell you Fern was a chimp and already you arent thinking of her as my sister. But until Ferns expulsion, Id scarcely...

Nina Browning is living the good life after marrying into Nashville's elite. More recently, her husband made a fortune selling his tech business, and their adored son has been accepted to Princeton. Yet sometimes the middle-class small-town girl in Nina wonders if she's strayed from the person she once was. Tom Volpe is a single dad working multiple jobs while struggling to raise his headstrong daughter, Lyla. His road has been lonely, long, and hard,...

Miss Julia, a longtime church member and pillar of her small Southern community finds herself in the center oa an unseemly scandal. The recently bereaved and newly wealthy widow becomes the guardian of a wan nine-year-old, the bastard son of Miss Julia's late husband, whose mere presence turns her life upside down.

Callie Parker's childhood companions gather for her marriage and discover howlittle they know of their beloved yesterday...and how one woman's darkest secret can tear them apart.

All Alison ever wanted for her six children was a blissful childhood. Together with Ingrid, the family au pair, she transformed a shabby Edwardian mansion into a veritable shrine of togetherness, complete with special-occasion dinners and elegant birthday parties. Allison has perfected the persona of devoted wife and doting mother. Beneath the postcard sheen, however, this picture is clouded.

"Since their mother's death, Tip and Teddy Doyle have been raised by their loving, possessive, and ambitious father. As the former mayor of Boston, Bernard Doyle wants to see his sons in politics, a dream the boys have never shared. But when an argument in a blinding New England snowstorm inadvertently causes an accident that involves a stranger and her child, all Bernard Doyle cares about is his ability to keep his children - all his children - safe."...