My purpose in writing this book

was to leave a mark on the hard face of passing time, a mark softened at the edges of a smile. An early glance shows a young family secure in its humor. Yet the grip of something stronger squeezes the three children apart and toward irony that laughter couldn''t touch. It will touch readers, I am confident. My hope is that these pages will loosen the force that wrenched the siblings apart, even as they thought less and less of how to help each other. Still and all, they must turn their own thoughts around.