Claire, a composer and a new mother, comes to Los Angeles so that her husband can follow his dream of writing television comedy. With Paul working all hours and Claire left with the baby, William, whom she adores but has no idea how to care for, they hire Lola, a fifty-two-year-old mother of five who works in America to pay for her own children’s education back in the Philippines. Lola stabilizes the rocky household, and other parents try to lure her away. What she sacrifices to stay with Claire and William remains her own secret.
Mona Simpson’s books include Anywhere but Here, The Lost Father, and A Regular Guy. She was named one of Granta’s Best Young American Novelists and has won the Whiting Writer’s Award, a Guggenheim Grant, the Hodder Fellowship at Princeton University, and a grant from the Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Foundation. She has taught at Bard College since 1988.View all by Mona Simpson