The Law of Enclosures

Beatrice and Henryamp;mdash;the parents of the protagonist of Dale Peck's debut novel, Martin and Johnamp;mdash;are first drawn together when the teenage Henry is battling a brain tumor he believes will soon claim his life. But forty years later they're still a couple, in a story that moves from Long Island to the Finger Lakes of upstate New York, and from love to hate and back again.

Peck bisects the story of Henry and Beatrice's marriage with a stunning fifty-page memoir about his own father, mother, and three stepmothersamp;mdash;which combines with the primary narrative to build an unforgettable and deeply moving book about the ways that family both creates and destroys us.