Cathleen Schine Books in Order

College student Alice Brody loses the use of her legs to a puzzling illness and enters a Manhattan hospital. Confined to bed, she navigates doctors, nurses, divorced parents, and eccentric visitors while questioning her changed life.

Newly married Alice Brody becomes entangled in another family crisis when her mother Brenda's former lover refuses to leave them alone. His obsessive attention turns their Westport home into a battleground of competing loyalties and demands.

Historian Margaret Nathan enjoys a successful career and a seemingly comfortable marriage until she encounters an erotic eighteenth-century manuscript. Its unsettling ideas follow her into academic life and a trip to Prague, disrupting her assumptions about desire.

Independent bookseller Helen discovers an anonymous love letter and begins wondering whether it was intended for her. Her curiosity unsettles her controlled life, especially as an unexpected attraction to a much younger man begins to develop.

Years after losing her closest childhood friend without explanation, Jane travels to the Galápagos and discovers that Martha is her tour guide. Among unfamiliar wildlife and fellow travelers, she revisits family history and their mysterious estrangement.

Elizabeth Bernard moves to Los Angeles to write a modern version of Madame Bovary while raising a young son. Illness among the women in her family complicates her work and relationships, bringing caregiving and private desires into conflict.

On a single Manhattan block, neighbors' dogs bring their owners into contact and help spark unexpected romances. As the seasons change, these encounters reshape the lives of people struggling with loneliness, shyness, and the risks of connection.

After her husband leaves her, elderly Betty Weissmann moves into a rundown Connecticut beach cottage with her two adult daughters. Their shared exile brings financial trouble, family disagreements, and new romantic possibilities that test reason against impulse.

Orphaned eleven-year-old Fin leaves rural Connecticut to live with his glamorous older half sister in 1960s Greenwich Village. While Lady becomes his guardian, her restless pursuit of freedom leaves Fin trying to protect her from herself.

After her husband's death, Joy Bergman resists her adult children's plans for managing her loneliness and old age. An old suitor's return further complicates family relationships as three generations struggle to balance affection, independence, and responsibility.

Identical twins Laurel and Daphne Wolfe grow up united by their fascination with language. As adults in Manhattan, their contrasting approaches to poetry and correct usage create rivalries that threaten the intimacy they have always taken for granted.

During the 2020 pandemic, aspiring Hollywood newcomer Julian becomes stranded with his ninety-three-year-old grandmother in Venice, California. Mamie's stories of escaping Vienna and growing up among European émigrés introduce him to a family past he barely knows.