Brilliant Australian Caroline can command everyone except her own ghoulish mother, which means that things aren't easy for Josh and Zoe, her husband with Stravinsky-glasses and twelve-year-old daughter. Zoe reads girls' ballet books and longs for lessons; a thing denied her until a chance encounter on a school French exchange. Meanwhile, on the east coast of Africa, Hattie, Josh's first love, now writes girls' ballet books when she can carve out time when she isn't caring for her husband and her crosspatch daughter. From far and wide, they are all drawn together: a masquerade in which things are not always what they seem.
Elizabeth Gilbert on Barbara Trapido:
"Why did it take me so long to discover the singular joys of Barbara Trapido's novels? Why, for so many years, had I missed these witty, soulful, heartbreaking, expansive, brilliant tales? I have become a literary evangelist on her behalf. On account of my badgering, all my friends now love her, too. I won't rest until everyone in America has read (and fallen in love with) this fabulous author." —Elizabeth Gilbert