The Butterfly Lampshade

The first novel in ten years from the author of the beloved New York Times bestseller THE PARTICULAR SADNESS OF LEMON CAKE, a luminous, poignant tale of a mother, a daughter, mental illness, and the fluctuating barrier between the mind and the world.On the night her single mother is taken to a mental hospital after a psychotic episode, eight year-old Francie is staying with her babysitter, waiting to take the train to Los Angeles to go live with her aunt and uncle. There is a lovely lamp next to the couch on which she's sleeping, the shade adorned with butterflies. When she wakes, Francie spies a dead butterfly, exactly matching the ones on the lamp, floating in a glass of water. She drinks it before the babysitter can see.Twenty years later, Francie is compelled to make sense of that moment, and two other incidents - her discovery of a desiccated beetle from a school paper, and a bouquet of dried roses from some curtains. Her recall is exact - she is sure...