CLOSE-UP

Good things can happen to lonely hearts and wounded families. Here's how.

Herman's latest novel assembles an accomplished cast of characters: a successful stage magician, a major American novelist, a published poet, a talented student poet and her world-wise single mother, a cockatiel, and, eventually, a precocious baby. As gifted as they may be, at the outset, things aren't going particularly well for most of them. The famous novelist, Martin Lieberman, is hit the hardest. Shortly before Thanksgiving he is abruptly abandoned by his wife; hearing this news, his teenage magician son, Jacob, decides not to come home from college. This means Jacob's cockatiel, Dolores, who was being cared for by his mother, is abandoned as well, and in fact Martin has no more idea than the bird of why all this has happened to him. The published poet, Jill Rosen—the protagonist of Herman's Dog (2005)—is less drastically miserable, but her life is not turning out quite as she might have hoped: She's aging, still single, and less successful than some of her friends. She does enjoy teaching, particularly when the student is as gifted (and worshipful) as Caroline Forester. The Kokosing State campus, where Jill teaches, where Jacob and Caroline are students, where Martin is a guest lecturer, turns out to be a fortuitous locale, as the characters cross paths there and begin to become part of each other's lives. Herman, who's noted for her writing about relationships, takes the time to bring every corner of this fictional world to life, including excerpts of all the writers' writings (they're good!), the evolution of Jacob's magic act, details about Martin's post-divorce linen closet, and the ongoing (and unexpectedly central) role of the pet bird. Almost all the characters change in interesting ways, but the depiction of Martin's transformation, as unlikely as it may be for a great man like him, is particularly generous and moving.

Fans of both Ann Patchett and Anne Tyler are likely to enjoy this satisfying, unhurried novel.