"Elizabeth Nunez is one of the finest and most necessary voices in contemporary American and Caribbean fiction."—Colum McCann

"A new book by Elizabeth Nunez is always excellent news."—Edwidge Danticat

Tracing the four days from the moment she gets the call that every immigrant fears to the burial of her mother, Nunez tells the haunting story of her lifelong struggle to cope with the consequences of the "sterner stuff" of her parents' ambitions for their children, and her mother's seemingly unbreakable conviction that displays of affection are not for everyday use.

Elizabeth Nunez is the award-winning author of eight novels, including Boundaries and Anna In-Between, which was a New York Times Editors' Choice and was selected for the 2010 PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Award. She is a Distinguished Professor at Hunter College, CUNY, and divides her time between Amityville and Brooklyn, New York.