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Anne Roiphe's splendid new novel is a refreshingly authentic, vivid, and often funny view of the way people meet and fall in love. Dazzling and delighting readers with her portrayal of character, she introduces us to Leah, a biologist no longer in her thirties and still unmarried, who has taken a leave from her job to spend the winter at her beach house. In this summer resort town in the off-season Leah meets Ollie, a high school English teacher feeling the universal frustration of trying to teach Moby-Dick to teenagers, and the conflicted emotions of taking responsibility for his handicapped sister, Sally. When Ollie and Leah begin unexpectedly to fall in love, it is with all the complications of lives already well established and the habits of half a lifetime spent alone. And for both, a commitment means making compromises, revealing secrets, and facing a crisis that can either destroy or redeem their relationship...in Anne Roiphe's totally absorbing, endearing, and eloquently told tale of the way things really are.