“Dazzling.” — The New York Times Book Review , Editors’ Choice “Richly satisfying.” — The Wall Street Journal “These are stories you want to live in...a collection perfectly suited for our moment.” — Booklist (starred review) A collection of stories “so beautifully crafted they feel like tiny worlds unto themselves” ( Los Angeles Times ) about women experiencing all life’s beauty and challenges, from award-winning writer Megan Mayhew Bergman. A recently separated woman fills a huge terrarium with rare flowers to establish control over a small world and attempt to heal her broken heart. A competitive swimmer negotiates over which days she will fulfill her wifely duties, and which days she will keep for herself. A peach farmer wonders if her orchard will survive a drought. And generations of a family in South Carolina struggle with fidelity and their cruel past, some clinging to old ways and others painfully carving new paths. In this “closely observed” ( The New Yorker) collection, Megan Mayhew Bergman portrays women who wrestle with problematic inheritances: a modern glass house on a treacherous California cliff, a water-starved ranch, and an abandoned plantation on a river near Charleston. “Bergman’s stories are so emotionally rich that they serve as portals into distinct interior worlds...this collection is distinct and vivid...As singular as it is atmospheric” ( Kirkus Reviews , starred review).