Contains a special reading group guide.

Is Emilia the wicked stepmother incarnate? Passionately in love with her husband, Emilia has a secret, guilty loathing for her precocious little stepson, William - a forty-year-old ina five-year-old's body, whom she picks up from nursery every Wednesday afternoon. He is lactose intolerant, she feeds him dairy products; he mustn't get cold, she pushes him - accidentally - into a pond in Central Park. How can she forgive William for living, when her own cherished child has gone? A funny, candid and raw, a humorous and emotional novel about family in today's fractured society. Set among high-achieving Manhattanites, it announces the the arrival of an exciting new American voice.