Publisher's Synopsis
In this beautifully written novel that blends the whimsy of The Time Traveler's Wife with an indelible portrait of motherhood, a young woman strives to pick up the pieces after her husband mysteriously leaves-and she finds strength from the unlikeliest of allies.
Jenny Lipkin is an average, stretched-too-thin Brooklyn mom tackling the challenges of raising two children in a cramped Park Slope walk-up and bonding with the other moms about breast-feeding while spending endless hours in Prospect Park. All she really wants is to survive the sweltering New York summer with a shred of sanity intact. But when her husband Harry, a compulsive gambler, vanishes one evening without a word, Jenny finally reaches her breaking point. In a moment of despair, a split-second decision changes her life forever.
Pulled from the brink by an unexpected-and as it turns out, sometimes annoying-supernatural ally, Jenny is forced to rethink her ideas about success, motherhood, romance, and relationships. Confronting her inner demons-of both the mermaid and nonmermaid variety-is no easy task, and eventually Jenny has to come to terms with who she truly is, for better or worse.