"We don\'t need a new mother," declares a bereft, eight-year-old, after devastating loss.
By the book\'s close, as roles reverse, all move through "rooms stenciled now with absence." T.
Into this postwar, Philadelphia family enters a German-born "second mother"-with memories of searching "the ravaged henhouse / for eggs missed by starving soldiers." The evolving relationship between child and step-mother upends stereotypes and re-configures, with compassion and wisdom, the mother-daughter paradigm. "We don\'t need a new mother," declares a bereft, eight-year-old, after devastating loss