From the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Less. 'A riveting and fascinating novel full of stunning observations and brilliant moments of truth and sympathy.' Colm Tóibìn It is 1953, and in San Francisco Pearlie, a dutiful housewife, finds herself caring for both her husband's fragile health and her polio-afflicted son. Then one morning someone from her husband's past appears on their doorstep. His arrival throws all the certainties by which Pearlie has lived into doubt, and is brought face to face with the desperate measures people are prepared to take to escape the confines of their lives.