A pitch-perfect, emotionally riveting debut novel about the fracturing of a marriage and a family—from an award-winning young writer with superb storytelling instincts.Life hasn't always been perfect, but for Abe and Cassandra Green, an afternoon on the San Francisco Bay might be as good as it gets. He's a rheumatologist, piloting his coveted new sailboat. She's a sculptor, finally gaining modest attention for her art. Their beautiful daughter Elizabeth is heading to Harvard in the fall. Somehow, they've made life work. But then, out of nowhere, they plunge into a terrible fight. Cassandra has been unfaithful. In a fit of fury, Abe throws himself off the boat. A love story that begins with the end of a marriage, The Violet Hour follows a modern family through past and present, from the San Francisco public health clinic where Abe first sees Cassandra to the funeral home in the Washington suburbs where Cassandra and her siblings grew up. As Cassandra, Abe, and Elizabeth navigate the passage of time—the expectations of youth, the concessions of middle age, the headiness of desire, the bitterness of loss—they must come to terms with the fragility of their intimacy, the strange legacies they inherit from their parents, and the kind of people they themselves want to be. Exquisitely written, The Violet Hour is the deeply moving story of a family suddenly ripped apart, but then possibly—just possibly—reborn.