ÒPerfect is boring.Ó

Well, 1983 certainly wasnÕt boring for the Welch family. Somehow, between their handsome fatherÕs mysterious death, their glamorous soap-opera-star motherÕs cancer diagnosis, and a phalanx of lawyers intent on bankruptcy proceedings, the four Welch siblings managed to handle each new heartbreaking misfortune in the same way they dealt with the unexpected arrival of the forgotten-about Chilean exchange studentÐtogether.

All that changed with the death of their mother. While nineteen-year-old Amanda was legally on her own, the three younger siblingsÐLiz, sixteen; Dan, fourteen; and Diana, eightÐwere each dispatched to a different set of family friends. Quick-witted and sharp-tongued, Amanda headed for college in New York City and immersed herself in an Õ80s world of alternative music and drugs. Liz, living with the couple for whom she babysat, followed in AmandaÕs footsteps until high school graduation when she took a job in Norway as a nanny. Mischievous, rebellious Dan, bounced from guardian to boarding school and back again, getting deeper into trouble and drugs. And Diana, the red-haired baby of the family, was given a new life and identity and told to forget her past. But DianaÕs siblings refused to forget herÐor let her go.

Told in the alternating voices of the four siblings, their poignant, harrowing story of un_breakable bonds unfolds with ferocious emotion. Despite the Welch childrenÕs wrenching loss and subsequent separation, they retained the resilience and humor that both their mother and father endowed them withÐgrowing up as lost souls, taking disastrous turns along the way, but eventually coming out right side up. The kids are not only all right; theyÕre back together.

From the Hardcover edition.