This Lark of Stolen Time

During a dispiriting March snowstorm, all four of the Lauder Jones children are living at home again. It's a rare moment of congress before the family dissolves. Their father, Douglas, is an obscure short-story writer, and their mother, Ursula, a neuroscientist searching for the cures for Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. John, the eldest, works in his mother's lab at Dalhousie University. Though he has only his dissertation left to complete in pursuit of his doctorate, he is in agony over the end of a love relationship and no longer wants to be a scientist. His sister Merin has returned from working in publishing in Toronto and has used a windfall inheritance to open a small independent movie house on Barrington Street, one frequented by her teenage sister Anya, an aspiring painter. The youngest, Cary, observes his family with a keen eye through the years that follow John's decision to leave Halifax to work on a coast guard ship out of Prince Rupert, BC., a decision that leads to two untimely deaths and profoundly alters the lives of each member of the family.