LAW OF FALLING BODIES

From the author of the highly praised Small Claims comes an unlikely and beguiling mother-daughter story as they navigate through uniquely puzzling parts of their lives.

Gloria is a modern-day “snake oil” saleswoman and a quixotic entrepreneur who sells everything from metal detectors to aphrodisiac perfumes, but her real stock-in-trade is hope. She and her teenage daughter, Kim, drive throughout the Southwest, pulling their trailer from town to town, staying one small step ahead of the postmaster general and the FDA the entire time.

This is the only world Kim has ever known, until Arthur, a widow thirty years older than her, crashes into her life and takes her heart hostage. As the young girl and senior fall in love, Gloria has a vision in a car wash, launching her into a scheme she hopes will be her greatest triumph.

Both laugh-out-loud funny and heartachingly poignant, The Law of Falling Bones is not only a delicate, loving portrayal of a daughter’s fierce devotion to her wildly unconventional mother, but it is a surprisingly magical story of a genuine relationship between two significant opposites.

Jill Ciment was born in Montreal, Canada. She is the author of Small Claims, a collection of shorts stories and novellas; Half a Life, a memoir; and several novels including The Tattoo Artist and Teeth of the Dog. She has been awarded a National Endowment for the Arts, a NEA Japan Fellowship Prize, two New York State Fellowships for the Arts, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Ciment is a professor at the University of Florida, and lives with her husband in Gainesville, Florida, and Brooklyn, New York.