From the publisher: Gail Godwin’s new novel is told in a multiplicity of voices; and what emerges is a profound and unforgettable portrait of a southern family for whom provocation has become a way of life. Lying at the center of the novel are two violent and mysterious deaths, one of which is Theo’s. The only member of the family who has been able to escape its regional, if not its emotional, clutches is Clare, Lily’s daughter by a previous marriage. Now a successful writer in New York, in the aftermath of Theo’s death she returns to the South with her European lover, Felix Rohr, to face her guilt at her neglect of Theo and, like the other members of her family, to confront the demons of self-doubt and hate that are her legacy from the past. A Southern Family is storytelling on a grand scale, rich with revelations of friendship, love, and the deep entanglements of family life. With it, Gail Godwin confirms her place among the masters of the contemporary American novel.