“An intimate, nuanced rumination on family, work, friendship, and home, delivered in bold prose that hums with the curiosity of a true seeker.”
~Kimberly King Parsons, author of Black Light, longlisted for the 2019 National Book Award
“Full of love, loss, longing, and hope . . . a poignant look at what it means to embark upon a quest for origins, identities, and meaning.”
~Kim Barnes, author of In the Wilderness, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize
“Brilliantly illuminates the stories buried underneath the surface of history, family, work, and home. Lois Ruskai Melina narrates as keenly as a journalist with the voice and vision of a poet. Truth and beauty on every page.”
~Lidia Yuknavitch, author of The Chronology of Water, finalist for the PEN Center USA Award in Creative Nonfiction
“From the opening words of this luminous book, Melina crafts prose so achingly beautiful, so touched with wonder. Each essay acts like the surface of water, inviting us to explore deeper.”
~Rene Denfeld, author of The Enchanted, longlisted for the 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction
Family. Work. Home.
In the sixteen essays in this collection, Lois Ruskai Melina reflects on life events in which the personal connects to the political—her grandmother’s immigration, her own effort to start a labor union, the end-of-life decisions she faced with her mother.
Ranging in style from lyrical to narrative journalism, these essays explore topics ranging from infertility and adoption to toxic workplaces. They convey the longing for agency, especially among women, and examine questions such as: How do we make sense of what we cannot know? How do we heal? How do we know when we are home?
Melina turns frequently to the natural world for metaphor and imagery, but centers the body as the site of longing, suffering, healing—and power.
The title essay, “The Grammar of Untold Stories,” was a Notable essay in Best American Essays, 2018, and a finalist for the North American Review’s Torch Prize and the New Letters Prize for Nonfiction.
“The Scent of Water” was a finalist for the 2019 John Guyon Literary Nonfiction Prize from Crab Orchard Review.
“Down in the River to Pray” was selected by Kiese Laymon for the 2016 Best of the Net anthology.