Gail Caldwell met Caroline Knapp when both were in mid life stride. They clung to each other until Caroline Knapp's death 15 years later. In between they walked their dogs, discussed their writing lives, challenged their bodies by rowing and swimming, cried about their relationships with men, and shared their dance with alcoholism. This is an evocation of a deep relationship so revealing that it is rarely found outside of fiction. But death is not fiction and Caldwell's description of holding her friend's being right up until the last moment when she disappears will unhinge anyone who has accompanied a loved one in their travel to the abyss of the dead. You will pass this book on to many others!

- Barb Minett