content: I read this book two years ago and had the opportunity to participate in an interview with the author on National Public Radio. Ms. Gibbons was gracious, of course, but she could not answer the obvious difficulties in this book. The chronology is confused, and while the book reaches for important issues, ie the need for a young girl to have a mother, the treatment of the characters is shallow. The longing is there, and it is expressed well, but ultimately, the miraculous "healing" of the mother and her immediate death after her restoration--undermine whatever strength was in the novel.The one character that the reader has no trouble believing is Pearl, the caring maternal housekeeper. She is a jewel of characterization, much needed and appreciated in this novel.