Ragged Way People Fall Out of Love

Elizabeth Cox is the author of one story collection and three novels, including Night Talk, winner of the Lillian Smith Award. Born and raised in Chattanooga, she lived in Durham, North Carolina, for almost thirty years and taught at Duke University for seventeen years. She currently lives in Littleton, Massachusetts, and serves on the faculty of the Bennington Graduate Writing Seminars.

"The dissolution of Molly and Will Hanner's marriage is gradual - a casualty of carelessness and neglect. By the time they look up from their hectic lives to acknowledge how much has gone wrong between them then whole house had the weight of some unspeakable crime.' Bewildered, overwhelmed by guilt and their love for their three children, Molly and Will begin to disentangle themselves from each other while the surge of family life continues around them... This elegiac and meticulously observed family portrait leaves the reader appreciative but also wary; only in art can the mistakes of our lives be measured with such grace and forgiveness, or redeemed through such close attention." - The New Yorker "If you think there's nothing fresh to say about married people who wake up one day and discover they don't want to be married anymore, think again. Better yet read Cox." - Chicago Tribune "A novel of sparkling originality and depth.... With humor and compassion and a great deal of allowance for sadness. Cox charts the changing relationships.... Her imagination, originally, and ability to capture difficult emotions make [it] inspiring." - San Francisco Chronicle