“The truest kind of story: about the inconvenience of love, and the choices people make when they’re most afraid” (Amanda Stern, author of Little Panic).
Sarah Marker, an artist who ekes out a living teaching at a fancy Connecticut high school, hasn’t seen her husband in seven years. But now she’s received a letter from Philip, and he wants to visit. The two never formally cut ties; they simply drifted apart and into a state of ambivalence—and now, as much as Sarah would like to see him, she is terrified at what he will do when he discovers that she has a son.
Sarah bundles up her child and once again takes flight, in this novel that spans back in forth in time and journeys into the 1980s art scene in New York City—and ultimately, she must confront the terrible events surrounding Philip’s departure, and reconcile her own fractured experience of family, including the successful sister who has long overshadowed her.
“Powerfully written. . . . From its tense opening chapter to its memorable conclusion, this is a read-in-one-sitting trip.” —Publishers Weekly
“Compelling . . . A poignant picture of familial and romantic love and their complexities.” —Library Journal
“Who can plot the turns and reversals of the heart? Who can follow its illogical loyalties and mysterious obsessions? Who can reconcile its competing claims from lovers and family? Eliza Factor, that’s who, in this stunningly assured novel about a pair of sisters—one a successful artist, the other a famous singer—and the handsome architect who comes between them. The cover should come with a warning to put your life on hold for a few days, because once you pick it up, you won’t be able to do anything else until you finish.” —Bliss Broyard, author of One Drop: My Father’s Hidden Life—A Story of Race and Family Secrets