From the author of Driving Lessons, Saving Ruth, and Balancing Acts comes a poignant breakout novel about a single mother who inherits a beautiful beach house with a caveatâshe must take care of the ornery elderly woman who lives in it.
For years, Maggie Sheets has been an invisible hand in the glittering homes of wealthy New York City clients, scrubbing, dusting, mopping, and doing all she can to keep her head above water as a single mother. Everything changes when a former employer dies leaving Maggie a staggering inheritance. A house in Sag Harbor. The catch? It comes with an inhabitant: The deceasedâs eighty-two-year old mother Edith.
Edith has Alzheimerâsâor so the doctors tell herâbut she remembers exactly how her daughter Liza could light up a room, or bring dark clouds in her wake. And now Lizaâs gone, by her own hand, and Edith has been leftâlike a chaise or strand of pearlsâto a poorly dressed young woman with a toddler in tow.
Maggie and Edith are both certain this arrangement will be an utter disaster. But as summer days wane, a tenuous bond forms and Edith, who feels the urgency of her diagnosis, shares a secret that sheâs held close for five decades, launching Maggie on a mission that might just lead them each to what they are looking for.