Ephron Delia

New Yorkers Michael, a famous writer, and Lizzie, a journalist, travel to Italy with their friends from Maine – Finn; his wife, Taylor; and their daughter, Snow. “From the beginning,” says Taylor, “it was a conspiracy for Lizzie and Finn to be together.” Told Rashomon-style in alternating points of view, the characters expose and stumble upon lies and infidelities past and present. Snow, ten years old and precociously drawn into a far more adult drama, becomes the catalyst for catastrophe as the novel explores collusion and betrayal in marriage. With her inimitable psychological astuteness and uncanny understanding of the human heart, Ephron delivers a powerful meditation on marriage, friendship, and the meaning of travel. Set on the sun-drenched coast of the Ionian Sea, Siracusa unfolds with the pacing of a psychological thriller and delivers an unexpected final act that none will see coming.

Universal and timeless, Delia Ephron's How to Eat Like a Child is a delightful revisiting of the joys -- and tricky ploys -- of childhood. Made into a children's television special and a musical theater revue performed across the country each year, How to Eat Like a Child offers advice beyond the artful etiquette of food consumption. Ephron also teaches us How to Laugh Hysterically, How to Have a Birthday Party, How to Torture Your Sister, and much, much more. As the Washington Post Book World noted, After the giggles of recognition have subsided, one thing will be very clear: all adults are kids in grown-ups' clothing.

In a state of near panic because of the night-time activities of her teenage son Sam, Lily Davis decides to uproot him and herself from Manhattan to a small town on the coast of Long Island. She becomes a reporter for the weekly paper, Sam enrolls in high school, and for a while life proceeds as expected. But then through unexpected and unnerving circumstances, with a cop, in a house where she's not supposed to be, Lily spies a naked woman asleep on a bed. This is a murder. Or is it? And the cop is married, and Lily is guilt-ridden about her own divorce. Friendship and love relationships unravel or threaten to. But are people and events really as they seem, or is Lily just perceiving her small town through big city eyes?