Turtle Alveston "has grown up isolated since the death of her mother, in the thrall of her tortured and charismatic father, Martin. Her social existence is confined to the middle school (where she fends off the interest of anyone, student or teacher, who might penetrate her shell) and to her life with her father. Then Turtle meets Jacob, a high school boy who tells jokes, lives in a big clean house, and looks at Turtle as if she is the sunrise. And...

Relocating to an apartment with her two children to be closer to her mother, Gretchen offers to help clear out the home of a reclusive neighbor's recently deceased mother and discovers that the neighbor, Melissa, has two siblings and an identity that she never suspected.

While his wife lies in a coma, Hawaiian Matthew King comes to terms with her living will, the realities of who his daughters truly are--one is a drug addict, the other an attention-seeking preteen--and the dilemma of telling his spouse's lover about her impending death.

For Susan Green, messy emotions don't fit into the equation of her perfectly ordered life. She has a flat that is ideal for one, a job that suits her passion for logic and an 'interpersonal arrangement' that provides cultural and other, more intimate, benefits. But suddenly confronted with the loss of her mother and the news that she is about to become a mother herself, Susan's greatest fear is realized. She is losing control. When she learns that...