And the Dark Sacred Night

Winner of a National Book Award for her 2002 debut, Three Junes, Glass takes another sympathetic look at the complexities of contemporary life in this novel about family secrets. Kit Noonan was born to teenager Daphne back in the 1960s after she had an impulsive interlude with another teen, Malachy (Mal) Burns, at a summer music camp. Daphne gives up her dream of having a career as a cellist to become a teacher and raise Kit as a single mother. Malachy, who is gay, later becomes an important music critic; he dies of AIDS in Three Junes. Though Daphne eventually marries twice, she never tells Kit who his father is. Now in his 40s, with a wife and twins, Kit feels stymied; his academic career is going nowhere. At his wife's urging, he tries to find his father's family, which leads to some surprising twists and turns, including the requisite big family blowup at Thanksgiving.