A novel that tells the story of a year in the life of Liam Pennywell, a man in his sixty-first year.

A novel that talks about belonging and otherness, about insiders and outsiders, pride and prejudice, young love and unexpected old love, families and the impossibility of ever getting it right, about striving for connection and goodness against all the odds.

Through every family run memories which bind it together - despite everything. The Tulls of Baltimore were no exception. Abandoned by her salesman husband, Pearl is left to bring up her three children alone. Now as Pearl lies dying, stiffly encased in her pride and solitude, the past is unlocked and with its secrets.

On a beach holiday, 40-year-old Cordelia Grinstead walks away from her family, and just keeps walking. She re-invents herself in a new town as a serious-minded woman without ties. But gradually the messy emotions of family life catch up with her once more.

How does a man addicted to routine - a man who flosses his teeth before love-making - cope with the chaos of everyday life? Here, with the loss of his son, the departure of his wife and the arrival of Muriel, a dog trainer from the Meow-Bow dog clinic, Macon's attempts at ordinary life are tragically and comically undone.

Barnaby Gaitlin is a loser - just short of thirty, he's the black sheep of a philanthropic Baltimore family. Once upon a time, he had a home, a loving wife, a little family of his own; now he has an ex-wife, a 9-year old daughter with attitude. This book chronicles the foibles and frailties of the ordinary human heart.

Ben Joe is at college studying law when he gets a letter from his family saying one of his six sisters, Joanne, has returned home having left her husband, bringing her baby with her. Ben Joe goes home, and when he returns he remembers the past, the death of his father, his first girlfriend.

Barnaby Gaitlin is a loser - just short of thirty he's the black sheep of a philanthropic Baltimore family. Once upon a time he had a home, a loving wife, a little family of his own; now he has an ex-wife, a 9-year old daughter with attitude, a Corvette Sting Ray that's a collector's item but unreliable, and he works as hired muscle for Rent -a-Back, doing heavy chores for old folks. He has an alm

Morgan Gower has an outsize hairy beard, an array of peculiar costumes and fantastic headwear, and a smoking habit. He likes to pretend to be other people - a jockey, a shipping magnate, a foreign art dealer - and he likes to do this more and more since his brood of daughters are all growing up, getting married and finding him embarrassing.

When Joe Davitch first saw Rebecca, it was at a party at the Davitch home. Young Rebecca looked to Joe like the girl having more fun than anyone in the room and he wanted some of that happiness to spill over onto him, a 33-year-old divorce with three little girls. Is she really this natural-born celebrator, joyous and outgoing?

Jeremy Pauling is a thirty-eight-year-old bachelor who has never left home. He has a passion for making sculptures out of odds and ends and he has a terror of beautiful women. The death of his mother leaves Jeremy in sole charge of her ramshackle old boarding house, and the arrival of a new lodger brings him a challenge he really can't handle.

In a small Southern town, teenager Evie Decker becomes obsessed with local rock singer Bertram 'Drumstrings' Casey, and decides to take her life into her own hands. When she carves his name on her forehead, their two lives become unforgettably entwined.

From the incomparable Anne Tyler, a rich and compelling novel, spanning three generations, about a mismatched marriage - and its consequences. Michael and Pauline seemed like the perfect couple - young, good-looking, made for each other.

When young Jamie Pike dies in a tragic accident, she leaves behind a family numbed with grief and torn with guilt and recrimination. Here, the author explores how each member of the family learns to face the future in their own way.

Having sacked her handyman, newly-widowed Mrs Emerson finds a replacement in Elizabeth. The Emersons have a reputation for craziness, there are seven adult children, and Elizabeth finds herself drawn into their disorderly lives against her will. But in the end it is hard to tell whether she is a victim, or the de facto ruler of the family.

In the bank, thirty-five year old Charlotte Emory withdraws enough money to escape a life and a marriage gone sour. But Charlotte is about to escape in a way she never expected, as a young bank robber takes her hostage, and they head south for Florida in a stolen car.

When eighteen year old Ian Bedloe pricks the bubble of his family's optimistic self-deception, his brother Danny drives into a wall, his sister-in-law falls apart, and his parents age before his eyes.

Caleb Peck vanished in 1912, a voluntary refugee from an all-embracing Peckness of the Pecks. Sixty-one years later his half brother Daniel is still on trial, helped by his grand-daughter Justine, a character cursed with a Peckish necessity to see every side of a question.

Barnaby Gaitlin is a loser - just short of 30 he's the black sheep of a philanthropic Baltimore family. Once he had a home, loving wife and child. Now he has an ex-wife and a 9-year-old with attitude. He has a pathological curiosity about other people's lives, which often gets him into trouble.

During the course of the journey, with its several unexpected detours - into the lives of old friends and grown children - the author shows us there is to know about a marriage: the expectations; the disappointments; the way children can create storms in a family; the way the wife and husband can fall in love all over again; and more.