Growing up in Alabama, Renkl was a devoted reader, an explorer of riverbeds and red-dirt roads, and a fiercely loved daughter. Here, in brief essays, she traces a tender and honest portrait of her complicated parents-her exuberant, creative mother; her steady, supportive father-and of the bittersweet moments that accompany a child's transition to caregiver. And here, braided into the overall narrative, Renkl offers observations on the world surrounding...

In "The Death of Ivan Ilyich, " a middle-aged judge falls gravely ill and is shunned by his materialistic family; and in "Confession, " Tolstoy charts his own religious evolution from his rejection of the Orthodox Church to his embrace of spirituality.