In the end, her relationship with her son teaches Susanne to understand her own troubled childhood and to forgive and care for her own aging parents. Susanne comes to realize how, time and time again, all families have to learn to adopt one another.
Susanne Antonetta is the author of the memoirs A Mind Apart and A Body Toxic, a New York Times Notable Book, as well as the poetry collections Bardo, Petitioner, Glass, and, most recently, The Lives of the Saints. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the New Republic, Best American Essays, and other publications. She lives in Bellingham, Washington, with her husband and son.