"Although we've gotten used to second-generation actors equaling or surpassing the accomplishments of their parents, the same hasn't happened with 2nd-generation novelists. Nonetheless there are a few . . . and added to their small number ought to be Kaylie Jones."—New York Times

Clara Sverdlow has been stalked by Niko Kamenski, her high school lover, for almost twenty years. A recently sober alcoholic in her mid-thirties, she has found happiness in a tenuous marriage to Mark, another recovering alcoholic. Yet the past lurks over them like a great shadow.

Clara’s father, Viktor, was a Russian political prisoner in Auschwitz. The guilt and horror he still carries with him are part of his daughter’s natural composition. Mark has his own demons—a brother dead from a drug overdose and connections to his hometown heavies, which he can’t seem to break free of.

Kaylie Jones is the author of four novels, including A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries and Celeste Ascending. She teaches in Long Island University's MFA Program in Writing.

• January 2012 Indie Next List
• December 2011 Indie Next List
• November 2011 Indie Next List