Kelli Deeth's first book since her acclaimed 2001 debut The Girl without Anyone (a Globe and Mail Best Book of the Year) is a collection of stories about missed connections and unrequited desire. Deeth's female protagonists confront the emotional complexities of marriage, childlessness, adoption, adolescent longing, friendship, and death; they mourn the loss of youth while grappling with the uncertainties of adulthood.

In "Vera's Room," a woman who is unable to conceive negotiates a tense relationship with the seven-year-old girl she and her husband have adopted. In "Embrace," Theresa, a young woman who has just had an abortion decides to give up on sexual desire and settle with a divorced father who can provide her with safety. And in "Sis," Jenny moves back to Toronto from Winnipeg in order to start her life over and reconnect with her step-brother, with whom she shares complicated and tragic childhood.

These are stories about the vagaries of family and the narrow chasm between longing and grief; with a deft hand and a knowing eye, Kelli Deeth creates stories that are devastating, incisive portraits of dysfunction and desire.

As she stood there, she could almost hear Michael's voice, a firm voice that shook when he was upset. He would tell her to be happy with who she was, to hold her head up, to be proud of the choices she had made, because she had made them with her own well-being in mind. She and Michael were a family, and who was to say they were not? They were a family like anyone else; no one was missing, no one was wanted, no one would leave the other, and no one would be left alone to fend for themselves. The things they said to each other, over and over; words whose meanings brought little comfort, no matter how beautiful and logical they were, no matter how often they were said, who said them or who heard them, whose voice trembled or whose broke.