Abold new novel about the redemptive power of love

Hailed by Jamie James in The Atlantic Monthly as "one of the most original voices on the literary scene," Lois-Ann Yamanaka is back with a novel about family and forgiveness. Set in Hawaii and Las Vegas, Father of the Four Passages tells the story of Sonia Kurisu, a street-wise young mother, who struggles to raise her child, Sonny Boy, as she seeks to come to terms with the three children she aborted. In sequences alternating between the past and the present, we learn of Sonia's childhood-her abandonment by her father and her mother; her contentious relationship with her sister, Celeste; her string of bad lovers; her problems with drugs and alcohol-and of her wish to reconcile with her father and make something of her life by being a good parent to her son, who has begun to show signs of developmental problems. A haunting novel about fathers, forgiveness, spirituality, and solace, Father of the Four Passages is Yamanaka's most ambitious work to date.