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About the Book

About the Book

The Rules of Inheritance: A Memoir

At age 14, Claire Bidwell Smith --- an only child --- learned that both of her parents had cancer. The fear of becoming a family of one before she came of age compels Claire to make a series of fraught choices, set against the glittering backdrop of New York and Los Angeles --- and the pall of regret. When the inevitable happens, and Claire is alone in the world, she is inconsolable at the revelation that suddenly she is no one's special person. It is only when Claire eventually falls in love, marries, and becomes a mother that she emerges from the fog of grief.

Defying a conventional framework, this story is told using the five stages of grief as a window into Smith's experience. As in the very best memoirs, the author's powerful and exquisite writing renders personal events into universal experience.

The Rules of Inheritance: A Memoir
by Claire Bidwell Smith

  • Publication Date: December 24, 2012
  • Genres: Nonfiction
  • Paperback: 304 pages
  • Publisher: Plume
  • ISBN-10: 0452298873
  • ISBN-13: 9780452298873