the accidental

Amber - thirtysomething and barefoot - shows up at the door of the Norfolk cottage that the Smarts are renting for the summer. She talks her way in. She tells nothing but lies. She stays for dinner. Writer Eve Smart things Amber is a student with whom her husband, Michael, is sleeping. Michael knows only that her car broke down. Astrid, age twelve, thinks she's her mother's friend. Son Magnus, seventeen, thinks she's an angel. As Amber insinuates herself into the family, the questions of who she is and how she'd come to be there drop away. A tour-de-force of literary improvisation, The Accidental explores the nature of truth, the role of chance, and the transformative power of storytelling. (back cover)