Zara

Meredith Steinbach's moving first novel tells the story of a strong yet vulnerable woman's attempts to reconcile her varying roles as daughter, wife, and doctor. Zara centers on Zara Montgomery's troubled relationships with three powerful forces in her life: her taciturn physician father; her mother, dying of cancer; and her attractive but unstable husband. In prose both sharp and spare, Steinbach paints a deeply perceptive portrait of a remarkable young woman.