Personal essays share the author's adventures after buying a vacation house on the Carolina coast and his reflections on middle age and mortality.

At forty-two, South Carolina matrimonial lawyer Helen Decatur finds herself wanting a baby and attracted to a sexy bachelor who does not want a family.

In nineteenth century China, in a remote Hunan county, a girl named Lily, at the tender age of seven, is paired with a laotong, or "old same," in an emotional match that will last a lifetime. The two women exchange messages written on silk fans and handkerchieves using nu shu, a unique language that women created in order to communicate in secret, sharing their experiences, but when a misunderstanding arises, their friendship threatens to tear apart....

"Inspired by Mrs. Dalloway and Sula, The Days of Afrekete is a tender, surprising novel about two Philadelphia women at midlife who rediscover themselves-- and perhaps each other"--

Argues that the need for change as one grows older is a human phenomenon and assists the individual psychologically and spiritually to reframe this transition so that it leads to a sense of joy and awakening.

Adam and Mary love each other but life conspires to drive them apart. As they deftly juggle children, grandchildren, work, and friends, they react to the challenges of life in opposite ways - Adam desperately searches for a fountain of youth while Mary focuses on looking after her family. When their methods clash, their separation seems inevitable.

Explores the nature of midlife eating disorders, looking at why they develop, how their unique challenges set them apart from those that occur earlier in life, and the path to recovery.

"New York Times and worldwide bestselling "dazzling storyteller" (Associated Press) Isabel Allende returns with a sweeping novel about three very different people who are brought together in a mesmerizing story that journeys from present-day Brooklyn to Guatemala in the recent past to 1970s Chile and Brazil. In the Midst of Winter begins with a minor traffic accident--which becomes the catalyst for an unexpected and moving love story between two...

The death of Adam Berendt, a sculptor with a mysterious past, transforms his small hometown as his friends and family learn how to go about living their lives without him.