"In my family we are all disposable," begins Annie, the winning but

troubled narrator of When We Get Home. She has seen her debonair

father go through three divorces and her 20oyear-old brother Walter

passionately fall for Isabelle, their father s newest wife. Annie herself

is struggling with love and fidelity in her own marriage, trying to

transcend her family tendency toward instability. When Walter gets

into severe trouble while on a camping trip in Canada, Annie is

forced to reevaluate everything-her family s legacy of turmoil and

her own sometimes offhand approach to commitment. From New

York City to the family beach house on Long Island, we follow this

idiosyncratic and captivating family.

In her first novel, Maud Carol Markson skillfully uses humor, com-

passion, and an authentic sensibility to detail warmly the often

ludicrous patterns of familial bonds, for a funny wise, wholly origi-

nal novel about the tangled web of modern relationships.