Family History

From the prodigiously gifted author of the acclaimed memoirSlow Motion, a stunning and brutally honest novel about one family's harrowing recovery from devastation. Rachel Jensen is perfectly happy: in love with her husband, devoted to their daughter Kate, gratified by her work restoring art. And finally, she's pregnant again. But as Rachel discovers, perfection can unravel in an instant. The summer she is thirteen, Kate returns from camp sullen, angry, and withdrawn. Everyone assures Rachel it's typical adolescent angst. But then Kate has a terrifying accident with her infant brother, and the ensuing guilt brings forth a dreadful lieone that ruptures their family, perhaps irrevocably.Family Historyis a mesmerizing journey through the mysteries of adolescent pain and family crisis.

Dani Shapiro is the author of three acclaimed novels, <b>Playing with Fire</b>, <b>Fugitive Blue</b>, and <b>Picturing the Wreck</b>, and the best-selling memoir<b> Slow Motion</b>. She teaches in the graduate writing program at The New School, and has written for <i>The New Yorker</i>, <i>Granta</i>, <i>Elle</i>, and <i>Ploughshares</i>, among other magazines. She lives with her husband and son in Litchfield County, Connecticut.<br><br><br><i>From the Hardcover edition.</i>