I've always been a fan of Sue Miller's keenly observed, graceful novels exploring the human condition, and this is a good one. Aid worker Frankie Rowley has returned from Africa, escaping from a failed affair and burn out. She returns to her small town American home to find her father struggling with dementia, her mother struggling to cope, and her sister resentful that she has been left to hold things together. As always, Miller draws her characters with sensitivity and nuance, their emotions are plausible and convincing; but it's not all a character play, the plot has pace and tension as the work of an arsonist generates fear and tension in the small town. Anyone who enjoys the writing of Ann Patchett or Anne Tyler should give this a go.