“What [Barbara Gowdy] does, with bravery and compassion, is explore the immense impact that obsessive love can have on innocent--and not-so-innocent--people.” —People

“Rich in characters . . . Terror and empathy move in lockstep through the final pages of this deeply perceptive novel.” —O, The Oprah Magazine

“The reader is gripped by the characters and Gowdy's technical sophistication.” —San Francisco Chronicle

“Although she maintains a palpable level of tension . . . [Gowdy] offers a more nuanced psychological focus on a quartet whose relations to one another are both oddly distant and profoundly intimate.” —Los Angeles Times

“Deftly and with the illusion of innocence, [Gowdy] renders the alien native. Hers is a peacemaking genius, unique in its talent for the transition of strangeness to second nature, repulsiveness to sorrow, and insane to ordinary.” —Lydia Millet, The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

“A nail-biting story told with wonderful quirkiness.” —Lionel Shriver, Daily Telegraph (UK)

“Harrowing and compelling.” —Chicago Tribune

“A page-turner that finds tension not in the obvious question (Will Rachel be rescued?), but in more personal ones.” —The New York Times