Barrett Meeks, having lost love yet again, is walking through Central Park when he is inspired to look up; he sees a pale, translucent light that seems to regard him in a distinctly godlike way. At the same time, in Brooklyn, Tyler, Barrett's older brother, a struggling musician, is trying to write a song for Beth, his wife-to-be, who is seriously ill. Barrett, haunted by the light, turns unexpectedly to religion, while Tyler grows increasingly convinced...

"Alice Culvert is a force: passionate, independent, smart, and gorgeous, she--to her delight--attracts attention wherever she goes, even amid the buzz of mid-90s New York. In knee-high boots, with her newborn daughter, Doe, strapped to her chest, Alice is one of those people who just seem so vividly alive, which makes her cancer diagnosis feel almost incongruous. How could such a being not go on? But all at once, Alice's existence, and that of her...

A young man's treatment for cancer inspires profound changes in his family. Paul Bannerman, an ecologist in South Africa, believes he understands the trajectory of his life, with the usual markers of vocation and marriage. But when he's diagnosed with thyroid cancer and, after surgery, prescribed treatment that will leave him radioactive, for a period a danger to others, he begins to question, as Auden wrote, "what Authority gives / existence its...

For fans of Jodi Picoult and Anita Shreve comes an exhilarating debut novel of one woman's courage in the face of catastrophe. She'll do anything to save them. But what will she do to save herself? When Kat Jamison retreats to the Blue Ridge Mountains, she's counting on peace and solitude to help her make a difficult decision. Her breast cancer has returned, but after the death of her husband, her will to fight is dampened. Now she has a choice...

Dark and compassionate, graceful yet raw, Undressing the Moon explores the seams between childhood and adulthood, between love and loss. . . At thirty, Piper Kincaid feels too young to be dying. Cancer has eaten away her strength; she'd be alone but for a childhood friend who's come home by chance. Yet with all the questions of her future before her, she's adrift in the past, remembering the fateful summer she turned fourteen and her life changed...