When she is asked about the inspiration behind her iconic work, renowned poet Fiona Skinner recounts the summer her family spent in a middle-class Connecticut town.

When the renowned poet Fiona Skinner is asked about the inspiration behind her iconic work, The Love Poem, she tells her audience a story about her family and a betrayal that reverberates through time. It begins in a big yellow house with a funeral, an iron poker, and a brief variation forever known as the Pause: a free and feral summer in a middle-class Connecticut town. Caught between the predictable life they once led and an uncertain future that stretches before them, the Skinner siblings-- fierce Renee, sensitive Caroline, golden boy Joe and watchful Fiona-- emerge from the Pause staunchly loyal and deeply connected. Two decades later, the siblings find themselves once again confronted with a family crisis that tests the strength of these bonds and forces them to question the life choices they've made and ask what, exactly, they will do for love.

"A wise, bighearted novel of unplanned isolation and newly forged community, from the New York Times bestselling author of The Last Romantics"--