Mahjong at Mara's

There are the families you are born into and the families you choose.Suburban New Jersey-the quintessential quagmire of coexistence. Neighboring communities comprised of people of multiple ethnicities and financial status-converging at the local gas station, supermarket, and café- speaking in snippets of feigned and genuine cordiality. People with whom we rarely envision sharing anything more of ourselves ¿ until we do.Seventeen years after losing the love of her life on 9/11, Lila, a nurse aide, and her teenage son Dante find solace in unlikely companions- a group of Mahjong-playing octogenarians. There's Lila's client Thea, struggling with Alzheimer's, and her sweet husband, Joseph; Mali, a lonely Holocaust survivor living far away from her only daughter; childless and recently widowed Frank; and the persnickety, divorced Gladys whom Mali disliked from the moment the two met. When Brian, a duplicitous new neighbor, and Dante's friends Rashon and Giselle, join the mix, all their lives take surprising turns that raise questions about the concepts of family, loyalty, and love. A bighearted novel with an endearing and diverse cast of characters, MAHJONG AT MARA'S illustrates the bumpy ride to understanding experienced by the complicated patchwork of people who make up suburban America.