Gosh, I love this book. From the first time I read it, the characters were fully alive and present to me, even as some of the plot remained obscure. It's a book that bears reading and rereading, deep consideration and reconsideration. The prose itself is lovely (the descriptions of food, smells, growing things, and skies are lyrical and irresistible); the complex narrative is propulsive, bewitching, and compelling; and the characters are undeniably, achingly human. At the center: what does it mean to live in community? What do we risk and what do we gain?