Body Language

Three adult sisters are faced with their mother’s provocative last request in this clear-eyed and moving novel exploring choice, change, and power in the bodies and lives of four different women.

Sloane, a former actress now working as a therapist, is determined to find a meaningful way through menopause, away from marketing schemes, possibly with the aid of psychedelics. Her sister Laurel is managing her own growing rage and restlessness while engaging in work at an environmental non-profit and raising teenagers. Nanette, the youngest, has answered a long-delayed religious calling and is living as a Novice in a convent. All three lives will be further disrupted when Sloane receives a call summoning her to their mother’s house, Laurel discovers possible evidence of her husband’s infidelity, and Nanette finds herself in the middle of a media frenzy after a spontaneous act of public prayer.

Soon, all three are reunited under their mother’s roof, and no one can seem to agree about anything beyond the obvious: Barbara has dementia, as did her mother and sister before her. Will it be an opportunity for the closed door of their very private mother’s inner life to crack open? A lesson in care; a shared responsibility that will be the making of this family, divided by large age gaps, parental divorce, and temperament? Or will a stunning revelation upend not only their mother’s remaining time, but divide the sisters permanently?

With razor-sharp prose and undeniable humor, acclaimed author Meg Howrey brings an American family in the midst of a painful crisis to unforgettable life, interrogating memory and emotional inheritance, the right of a woman’s autonomy, and the indelible bonds even the most disparate of sisters can share."Meg Howrey writes with a satiric eye and a generous heart, and I was won over by her hilarious and disarmingly honest novel about mothers and daughters and what it really means to take care of the people you love." --Marisa Silver, author of At LastMEG HOWREY is the author of the novels The Wanderers, The Cranes Dance, Blind Sight, and most recently, They're Going to Love You, which was a New York Times Best Book of the Month and a New Yorker Best Book of 2022. Her work has also appeared in Vogue, Harvard Review, The New York Times and The Los Angeles Review of Books. A former professional dancer, she currently lives in Los Angeles.