Books by Mona Simpson

When an eavesdropping boy sets out to discover the obscure mysteries of his unravelling family, he uncovers instead what he least wants to know: the workings of his parents private lives. And even then he can't stop snooping.Miles Adler-Rich spies and listens in on his separating parents with the help of his friend Hector. The boys amateur detective work starts innocently enough. But in rifling through his mother s dresser and snooping in her online diary, it isn t long before they stumble into the outer reaches of the grown-up s privacy uncovering powerful information that will affect the family s health, wealth and sanity. Written with pathos and brilliant imagination, Casebook is an unflinching and very different coming-of-age story from one of America s most gifted chroniclers of modern family life.

The first monograph of Norma I. Quintana's photography; Circus. A Traveling Life, chronicles her decade-long collaboration with an American, travelling one-ring circus. Resulting in a loving history of extended families and a glance at another way of living in this world.

A wonderfully provocative and appealing novel, from the much-loved author of Anywhere But Here, her first in ten years. It tells the story of two women whose lives entwine and unfold behind the glittery surface of Hollywood.Claire, a composer and a new mother, comes to LA so her husband can follow his passion for writing television comedy. Suddenly the marriage-once a genuine 50/50 arrangement-changes, with Paul working long hours and Claire left at home with a baby, William, whom she adores but has no idea how to care for. Lola, a fifty-two-year-old mother of five who is working in America to pay for her own children's higher education back in the Philippines, becomes their nanny. Lola stabilizes the rocky household and soon other parents try to lure her away. What she sacrifices to stay with Claire and "e;Williamo"e; remains her own closely guarded secret.In a novel at turns satirical and heartbreaking, where mothers' modern ideas are given practical overhauls by nannies, we meet Lola's vast network of fellow caregivers, each with her own story to tell. We see the upstairs competition for the best nanny and the downstairs competition for the best deal, and are forced to ask whether it is possible to buy love for our children and what that transaction costs us all.