"For readers of Olive Kitteridge and Housekeeping, a novel about the deep undercurrents of love and regret in one Midwestern family. Margaret Maguire: a widow and grandmother, home from the hospital in time for Christmas, is no longer able to ignore the consequences of having married an imperious and arrogant man. Despite her efforts to be a good wife and mother in small town Iowa, her adult children are now strangers to each other, past hope of reconciling. Margaret's granddaughter could be the one to break the cycle, but she can't do it without Margaret's help. It's time to take stock, to examine the past, and even time for Margaret to call herself to account. By turns tenacious and tender, contrary and wry, Margaret examines her life's tragedies and joys, motivations and choices, coming to view herself and the past with compassion, if not entirely with forgiveness. Beautifully rendered and poignantly told, Evensong is a realistic portrait of a woman searching for tranquility at the end of her days"--… (more)