"This haunting, often surreal first novel vividly captures the struggles of a young woman, Vanessa Turin, as she attempts to recover her family and her past. At the novel's outset, Christine, Vanessa's talented and tormented poet-mother, has disappeared. In time, both her father and brother also desert her, in separate but equally inexplicable ways. Overcome with loss, Vanessa turns to her inner world, and through her imagination re-creates her life, both past and present. Maso's prose is repetitious and dreamlike, and her poetic images are sharp and evocative. Unconventional and intense, this novel tells a harrowing tale of the human search for love and understanding." —Library Journal