Julia Gfrörer explores lust, grief, and the human need for connection in this story of a 19th-century spinster and the haunted mirror that offers an escape from her frustrated line. In Gfrörer's thin, careworn lines, her debased and unnerving depictions of the supernatural, and her achingly vulnerable characters, she exposes the emotions that boil beneath the surface of everyday life and the terrible pressure society exerts to keep them hidden. Surrender to the quiet power of her storytelling, which greets you on every page like the embrace of a lover -- or the grave.