"Abandoned by his beautiful wife, Irene, Henry and their two young children, Thomas and Margaret, spend that summer in a tent on the edge of Black Pond. Henry, an itinerant butcher, struggles to provide for them, but often must leave them alone as he travels the county in search of work. And while Henry loves his children deeply, he is devastated by their mother's desertion. He has not told them why she left or if she'll return. When Mrs. Phyllis...

Nora Hammond seems to have it all: a loving husband, two children, a job at her husband's family newspaper in a staid New England town, and an important role in her community's charitable activities. But her privileged life threatens to unravel when she learns of her husband's infidelity -- and when the specter of her own past returns with terrifying force. A tautly told tale that accelerates to a shattering conclusion, The Last Secret explores the...

"After twenty-five years in prison for a senseless juvenile murder, Gordon Loomis returns to a changed world. His old neighborhood is blighted by drug dealers and neglected property. His brother, Dennis, a successful oral surgeon, tries to help but is torn by his own fears and failings. Gordon's persistent visitor, the flamboyant Delores Dufault, yearns to be part of his new life, but he is as afraid of relationships as he is of being sent back to...

Wallace a laborer in his late forties; Dotty, an abused teenager who flaunts her sexuality; and a little girl stolen from her playpen are bound together for the next five years by Dotty's manic moods and Wallace's tragic helplessness.