Cost

by Roxana Robinson

When Julia Lambert settles into her idyllic Maine house for the summer, she plans to spend the time tending her fragile relationship with her father, a retired but demanding neurosurgeon, and her gentle mother, who is descending, unnoticed, into Alzheimer′s. But a shattering revelation intrudes: her youngest son Jack, far from being a charming maverick, has spiralled into heroin addiction.
In attempt to save him, Julia calls on all the members of her loose-knit family: her elderly parents; remarried ex-husband; detached sister; and combative eldest son. As heroin sweeps through each of their lives, with its impersonal and devastating energy, it drags the family into a world in which deceit, crime and fear are part of daily life.
In her cool, elegant prose, Robinson delivers a novel of loss and love that is complex, surprising and breathtaking in its pace.

(From Publisher).

Roxana Robinson is the author of three novels and three short-story collections. Four of her works have been named Notable Books of the Year by The New York Times. Her work has appeared in The New Yorker, Harper′s Magazine and Vogue, among other publications.