Beginning in the 1950s Elena and Lila grow up in Naples, Italy, mirroring two different aspects of their nation.

Against the background of the sea, the author presents a group of characters from childhood to old age who speak in soliloquy, and we see them as they appear to themselves and to each other. In the end one of the characters sums up the effect of their lives as a whole.

When every person, all over the globe, receives a small wooden box bearing the same inscription and a single piece of string inside, the world is thrown into a collective frenzy, in this novel told through multiple perspectives that introduces an unforgettable cast of characters.

In this third volume in the series, Elena and Lina have become women. Lina married at sixteen and has a young son; she's left her husband and the comforts her marriage brought and now works as a common laborer. Elena's left the neighborhood, earned her college degree, and published a successful novel, all of which has opened the doors to a world of learned interlocutors and richly furnished salons.

In winning a medal she is no longer there to receive, a tight-lipped little Polish girl teaches her classmates a lesson. Includes a note from the author's daughter, Helena Estes.

"Elizabeth, Veronica, Rachel, and Emily met at Camp Birchwood as girls in 1985, where over four summers they were the Clover Girls, inseparable for those magical few weeks of freedom, until the last summer that pulled them apart. Now approaching middle age, the women are facing challenges they never imagined as teens--struggles with their marriages, their children, their careers--and wondering who it is they see when they look in the mirror. Then...

On a cool June morning, Isa Wilde, a resident of the seemingly idyllic coastal village of Salten, is walking her dog along a tidal estuary. Before she can stop him, Isa's dog charges into the water to retrieve what first appears to be a wayward stick, but to her horror, she discovers it's not a stick at all but a human bone. As her three best friends from childhood converge in Salten to comfort a seriously shaken-up Isa, terrifying discoveries are...

When friends Jack and Jill are injured in a sledding accident, their family and friends rally around them to help in their recovery.

Laura and Casey were once inseparable: as they floated on their backs in the sunlit lake, as they dreamed about the future under starry skies, and as they teamed up for the wild scavenger hunts in their small California lakeside town. Until one summer night, when a shocking betrayal sent Laura running through the pines, down the dock, and into a new life, leaving Casey and a first love in her wake. But the past is impossible to escape, and now, after...

Nantucket writer Madeline King couldn't have picked a worse time to have writer's block. Her deadline is looming, her bills are piling up, and inspiration is in short supply. Madeline's best friend Grace, is hard at work transforming her garden into the envy of the island with the help of a ruggedly handsome landscape architect. Before she realizes it, Grace is on the verge of a decision that will irrevocably change her life. Could Grace's crisis...