After her mother dies, a daughter returns home, finding unexpected reasons to stay.

Theater director Gwen Rivlin’s Pittsburgh-based troupe is about to open a new play when she receives word that her mother, Bobbie, has died at 54 after a fall down the stairs of the classic old turret house she’d inherited from her own parents. Gwen leaves her producing partner-with-benefits to run the show and makes the drive to Inverness, a fictional town in the Philadelphia suburbs. Her mother was a popular English teacher at the local high school, and Gwen finds both house and town to be filled with memories and afterimages of her vibrant personality. More than once she’s the one to break the news of Bobbie’s death—first, to an irate neighbor who accosts Gwen as soon as she arrives about the illegal, half-finished construction project in the backyard. Bobbie was hoping to build a cob house, a building made from a mixture of clay, sand, straw, and water, with the help of Ethan and Kamal, the gay couple who shared her home for minimal rent. Gwen not only finds herself asking them to stay on, but also inviting her childhood best friend, Lydia, and her two children to move in while Lydia is dealing with marital troubles. The prospect of returning to Pittsburgh recedes ever further into the distance as Gwen decides to stage an experimental production of The Cherry Orchard in the house. Chekhov’s play about an aristocratic family facing the loss of their home looms large in the novel—Gwen played one of the lead roles in high school, a copy now lies on her late mother’s nightstand, and the family joke was to refer to the single cherry tree in the backyard as “the cherry orchard.” As Gwen sorts through memories of her past while rediscovering the virtues of a town she had intentionally left behind, Pastan’s fifth novel explores all the ways we can and cannot go home again. With practical matters like zoning laws and housing affordability putting hard limits on her plans and dreams, will the joys of artistic expression and found family Gwen experiences in Inverness be able to take root and thrive?

A sensitive exploration of the power of place and the importance of creativity and community in a time of grief.

— Joseph Olshan Editorial Director, Delphinium Books