When Naomi's forty-four-year-old son Mahlon dies in an auto accident--eight years after the death of her husband, Eli--she turns to her daughter-in-law, Ruth. Both are widowed, bereft; Naomi has lost both husband and son. With sudden and absolute certainty, Naomi realizes what she must do to make herself whole again: She must go home. Naomi makes plans to leave the Massachusetts town she came to fifty years ago as a teenage bride, her husband just back from the war, and return to the coastal South Carolina where she grew up, where she and Eli fell in love, and where some semblance of family must remain. When Naomi's plan is revealed, Ruth's response is immediate and unexpected, yet consoling: Where you go, I will go. Where you live, that's where I'll live too. This is a pact between us. Here, Now. The two women plan the journey together. Inspired by the Biblical story from the book of Ruth, A SONG I KNEW BY HEART is a beautiful and deeply moving exploration of the power of love and family, of the ravages of grief and regret, and of the strength of the mother-daughter bond, by one of the most acclaimed and best loved novelists of our time.