My first Susie Boy book, this is the first of her books published in the U.S., I'll be looking for her earlier novels on-line.

Boyt does a great job of portraying the one sided relationship between a mother and her drug addicted daughter. It's painful and humiliating for Ruth, the mother, who never gives up wanting to help her daughter, but she knows Eleanore is not capable of raising a child and maneuvers to take Lily and raise her on her own.

Is this her second chance to get it right?

The beauty of the story slowly unfolds in timeline jumps that help to explain Ruth and Lily's relationship. I never quite understood what went wrong with Eleanore, but sometimes it's nothing that can be explained, it's the person and it just happens.

Highly recommend....loved it. ( )

So much thought, love, humor, pain and wisdom in these 180-or so pages. Beautifully written. ( )

"I had to be stoic when I was with Eleanor--if I looked in any way aggrieved, she would not speak--but I forgot in my panics that seeing me spritz myself all over with brightness disgusted her a little bit also."

Ruth is a teacher who raised her daughter Eleanor as a single-mom. Although she was an excellent and responsible parent, Eleanor turned rebellious and sullen as a teenager, and ultimately became a drug addict. Ruth loves Eleanor, has always tried to be there for her, but is constantly pushed away by Eleanor, and their relationship is usually more off than on.

Now Eleanor has become a mother herself, and has an infant daughter Lily. As the novel opens it becomes clear to Ruth that Eleanor is incapable of raising Lily, and through a series of machinations, Ruth takes over the care of Lily, although she ensures that Eleanor is welcome in Lily's life at any time. And the book becomes the story of Ruth and her granddaughter Lily, as Ruth teaches school, cares for and loves Lily, and grows old, and Lily grows up to be a fine young women.

This was a lovely contemplative book about a woman given a second chance to raise a child that I liked very much. I highly recommend it.

3 1/2 stars ( )

heartbreaking and brilliant ( )

A lovely, closely-imagined novel about a school teacher, her drug-addicted adult daughter, and her granddaughter.