Cathleen Schine

Author Cathleen Schine says that living far away from an elderly parent can create feelings of guilt as well as those of relief. Her darkly comic new novel is They May Not Mean To, But They Do.

Schine's new book is called The Love Letter, about how the titular object affects a single bookseller. Schine has written three previous novels: Alice in Bed, To the Bird House, and Rameau's Niece. She has also written for the New York Times Book Review, Vogue, and the Village Voice.

Cathleen Schine's new novel explores how one character's physical and mental decline ripples out to affect his whole family. Critic Maureen Corrigan calls it a mix of "fun and bad behavior."