Everything Must Go

Laine Francis makes her living putting other people's lives in order. Her own has quietly stopped working: she has never felt at home in Michigan, her dog has died, and her husband Josh's hedging about children has hardened into a wall between them. So when her sisters call to say that their mother Sally may be slipping into dementia, Laine goes back to Brooklyn — briefly, she tells herself.

Sally, infuriatingly, seems fine. What Laine does find is Ben, the best friend she lost years ago, and the chance to repair something she thought was gone for good. And she finds that her mother's forgetfulness is not the only thing being hidden in the house she grew up in.

Camille Pagán's warm, sharp novel of women's fiction is about the tidy stories families tell themselves, the ones that fall apart under pressure, and a woman who has to decide whether keeping everyone happy is worth the cost of never asking for what she wants.