ALICE MCDERMOTT

Real writing for real women. Charming Billy by Alice McDermott. Does not have warning label "May cause drowsiness" as do the books by, among others, Toni Morrison, Anne Tyler, and Sandra Cisneros. "Eloquent...heartbreaking...McDermott is brilliant." —The New York Times Book Review "An astoundingly beautiful novel about the persistence of love, the perseverance of grief, and all-but-unbearable loneliness, as well as faith, loyalty and redemption." —The Philadelphia Inquirer "In Charming Billy, Ms. McDermott writes...with wisdom and grace, refusing to sentimentalize her characters even as she forces us to recognize their decency and goodness. She has written a luminous and affecting novel." —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times