This heart-wrenching debut novel from filmmaker Bass (Seventy-Five Degrees in July) crisscrosses 16 years of one family's life, weaving a tender tale riveting in its realism. In the fall of 2007, bride-to-be Emily Ascher should be deliriously happy but instead is coping with many doubts and dilemmas. While confident of her love for her fiance and now enjoying an easier give-and-take with her mother, Emily still faces an uneasy relationship with her father. Joe, a once-famous playwright and actor, is still carrying the burden of guilt for the tragic death of Emily's brother, Thomas. As the nuptials approach, this struggling, splintered family picks up the pieces, and they all go on with their lives. Bass's well-paced, nuanced family saga is as engrossing as it is empathetic. Sure to appeal to readers who enjoy such family dramas as Judith Guest's Ordinary People. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 3/1/09; library marketing.]-Andrea Tarr, Corona P.L., CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Director, producer and screenwriter Bass creates a riveting narrative that digs into the notion that "there is nothing that happens to a child that does not implicate the parent in some way." Emily Ascher is planning her wedding at the site of her Berkshires childhood family vacation home, on the very hillside where the ashes of her brother, Thomas, are scattered. Alternating between present day and the past, Emily's story, along with that of her divorced parents, Joe and Laura, unfolds along with the circumstances surrounding Thomas's death. Joe, a once famous actor and playwright, is now "consumed by a desire to create and equally consumed by his inability to do so," while Laura, now remarried, still carries the emotional scars of a rocky first marriage and the inability to truly understand or successfully communicate with her daughter. Bass creates a large window into the workings of the Ascher family, exposing how small slights or seemingly minute actions ripple with consequence. Bass's excavation of a complex familial labyrinth is an elegant testament to the beautiful mess that is family. (July) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved