The novel explores the profound importance of family, how family creates purpose and meaning and provides support and love. The narrative chronicles Mabel and Jack’s growth into the family they were denied. The Epilogue presents the picture of a family that has survived joys and sorrows and stayed intact.

Early on, Mabel and Jack are defined by the family they lost through their stillborn child. Their self-imposed exile to the wastelands of Alaska is their strategy for handling that loss. Because both Mabel and Jack allow themselves to be defined solely by the loss of their child, for them family is something distant, even painful. Mabel believes there are no children to haunt her in the Alaskan wilderness. Family, she decides, is not for her.

Dinners with the Bensons begin the narrative’s exploration of the importance of family. The Benson home is happily chaotic, alive with the energy of children and the love of parents. If Mabel and Jack feel initially isolated from such joy, the narrative traces their gradual embrace of that crazy energy as the Bensons become less like neighbors and more like family. The impact is dramatic.