Abide with Me

Not to be confused with E. Lynn Harris' tome of the same name, this is Elizabeth Strout new book, and it is wonderful. It portrays the ugliness of gossip and the anatomy of love better than anything in recent memory. This is love in the broad, beautiful sense of true caring for all those who are put in our path, regardless of how unlovely they may be. And it is the love of parent for child and the hurt--or healing--that love can bring about. Strout also opens the question of love and euthanasia in a provocative way...as a very gray area.