cover image Now You Love Me

Now You Love Me

Liesel Litzenburger. Three Rivers Press (CA), $12 (210pp) ISBN 978-0-307-33955-3

In this novelistic arrangement of interrelated tales, Litzenburger explores similar emotional and geographical terrain as her recent debut, The Widower, beginning again after a traumatic loss in an isolated small town in Northern Michigan. ""Pictures from My Father's Trip"" introduces nine-year-old Annie Child, whose narration drives the book. In Annie's covert hoarding of her father's shoe in a neighbor's mailbox, Litzenburger articulates the loss that dominates the narrative-the sudden departure of a parent-and adds narrative clues as the book progresses, including divorce papers in ""The Day Before Easter."" Annie's mother, Paige, embarks on a relationship with the flamboyant but nice Shepherd Nash, an electrician and artist who ""tries too hard"" to fashion them all (including Annie's brother Gus) into a family. In ""This Beautiful Day,"" Paige's wild grief catches up to her, while ""Light"" and ""Here We Are"" relate the struggles of the family to find joy in starting over. Annie's father is an elusive figure, and Litzenburger doesn't find a good way of talking about some of Paige's more adult quandaries. Litzenburger's child's-eye view of a family on the brink is complex but finally confounding.