There is no way to de?ne this extraordinary book except perhaps by quoting the o
pening section: 'You could hardly get to age thirty-four without learning someth
ing about loss. By thirty-four you're bound to have lost your Swiss Army knife,
your best friend from fourth grade, your chance to be centre forward on the star
ting team, your hope of the Latin prize, quite a few of your illusions, and cert
ainly, somewhere along the line, some signi?cant love. Susan Selky had in fact r
ecently lost an old battle, for her marriage to the man she was in love with, an
d with it, many ancillary dreams of more babies, and of holding his hand in the
dark when they were old.
