Amanda is a successful book editor at a prominent publishing house in New York City. Thea is a stay-at-home mother of three who has never really left the community in which she grew up. Amanda, eight months pregnant with her first child, and her husband move in next door to Thea and her family, and the two women find themselves both drawn to and repelled by each other and their opposing choices in the constant struggle to balance career and family life.When a disaster forces Amanda and her family to take refuge in Theas home, the underlying tensions simmering between them are forced to the surface-and even more so when Thea fills in as Amandas temporary nanny. But once dead animals start appearing on Theas front porch-surely a macabre gift from Amanda?-the battle with the other mother begins in earnest.With a keen eye for what pulls us apart and what brings us together, Gwendolen Gross has created a stunning, dark, suspenseful novel that is as brave as it is shocking.From the Hardcover edition.