Cost: A Novel

Julia Lambert an artist is spending the summer in her old Maine farmhouse. During a visit from her elderly parents she hopes to mend complicated relationships with her domineering father a retired neurosurgeon and her gentle mother who is descending into the fog of Alzheimers. But a shattering revelation intrudes: Julias son Jack has spiraled into heroin addiction. In her attempts to save him Julia marshals help from her loosely knit clan but Jacks addiction courses through the family with a devastating energy sweeping them all into a world of confusion fear and obsession. In Cost Roxana Robinson applies her trademark gifts as an intelligent sensitive analyst of family life and creates a warmly human and deeply satisfying book marking a new level of ambition and achievement for this talented author (Chicago Tribune).