In a novel based on the author's real-life tragedy, Goldman, consumed with grief and guilt over the accidental death of his wife just before their second anniversary, obsessively collects every memory of her, especially her writings, with the hope of keeping her alive in his mind.

"In this short novel, a woman mourning the loss of her mother gets a mysterious package in the mail."--

The astrobiologist Theo Byrne searches for life throughout the cosmos while single-handedly raising his unusual nine-year-old, Robin, following the death of his wife. Robin is a warm, kind boy who spends hours painting elaborate pictures of endangered animals. He's also about to be expelled from third grade for smashing his friend in the face. As his son grows more troubled, Theo hopes to keep him off psychoactive drugs. He learns of an experimental...

As Caroline and Andrew Weston mourn for their son lost in war, Andrew's elderly mother Elsa comes to the Weston house, adding onto the tension between Caroline and Andrew.

A grieving Charlie Crosby, grandson of Tinkers protagonist George Washington Crosby, attempts to come to terms with the death of his daughter Kate and the subsequent dissolution of his marriage.

After veterinarian Helena Colden dies of breast cancer, she is unable to move on and narrates the emotional deterioration and struggle of her attorney husband David as he becomes involved in a court case to save the life of a chimpanzee.

It's December 22nd and siblings Henry, Kate, and Martin have converged with their spouses on Henry's house in upstate New York. This is the first Christmas the siblings are without their mother, the first not at their mother's Florida house. Over the course of the next three days, old resentments and instabilities arise as the siblings, with a gaggle of children afoot, attempt to perform familiar rituals, while also trying to decide what to do with...

"Sylvia has been nearly paralyzed with grief and anxiety since the tragic death of her husband, father, and brother in a traffic accident. She tries to help in the family's greenhouse while caring for her two children, but she prefers not to have to deal with customers. Her mother's own grief causes her to hover over her children and grandchildren, and Sylvia seeks a diversion. She takes up birdwatching and soon meets an Amish man who teaches her...