The Grief of Others by Leah Hager Cohen

A harrowing prologue describes the Ryrie family’s tragedy. A baby boy is born; he is anencephalic and they know that he will die. His mother, Ricky, holds him in her arms for all the 57 hours of his life. Afterwards, the family tries to carry on as normal, but the unmentionable grief exposes all the emotional fault lines. Ricky’s husband, John, a lecturer in theatre design, is always guiltily aware that Ricky earns far more than he does, but hates her Wall Street job. Their kids, 13-year-old Paul and 10-year-old Biscuit (female) are quietly going off the rails — especially Biscuit, who plays truant from school and has to be pulled out of the Hudson River. The tension is cranked up by the arrival of Jessica, John’s adult daughter from a previous relationship. Cohen shows how people are warped by things that they choose to keep secret; her writing is wise and incredibly moving.