Matters of Chance: A Novel - Softcover

"One of the best books of the year."-- "Publishers Weekly""In "Matters of Chance, " Haien takes us through more than three decades if one family's pleasures and sorrows, detailing its members' enviable ability to accept the vagaries of fate. These people are old-fashioned in the best ways--they know that love is what counts and that it, along with decency and compassion, will sustain them."-- "New York Times Book Review""Masterpiece is an apt description for "Matters of Chance"--the story of a couple whose family lives through World War II and the decades that follow in much the same way most families did: one day at a time."-- "Fort Worth Star-Telegram""The ebb and flow of happiness and sadness in this wonderfully drawn portrait of a good man in times of peril and pleasure is...completely satisfying...You feel the bite of real life. You feel the teeth."-- "Chicago Tribune""An engrossing saga...A richly detailed yarn, depicting an old world where along with privilege came honor, tradition, responsibility and duty...Jeannette Haien is a writer of vast compassion, and her characters are rich in something all too rare these days: dignity."-- "Newsday"

Matters of Chance is a glorious, aptivating novel about Morgan and Maude Shurtliff, who fall in love and marry in the years before World WarII. Unable to have children of their own, Morgan and Maude adopt twin girls. The four go home to their beautiful house in the country outside ofNew York City and begin to settle into what they hope will be a long and happy life. When the twins are still young, Morgan is called to serve inWorld War II, leaving Maude to raise her daughters alone. Jeannette Haien has rendered Morgan's war experiences with astonishing detail, just as she has captured the American post-war era with a precision that is unrivaled in recent fiction.