The Unraveling Thread — Priscilla Cogan

The Unraveling Thread is the story of a family exploding in crisis. Harriet McWhinnie, a divorced but successful career woman, arrives home to discover that yet another Agency person has fled, leaving behind Harriet's sweet but demented mother, her adolescent twin girls, one psychotic with an undiagnosed genetic disorder, the other rebellious and resentful of her disabled sibling, a little five year old son yearning for the return of his father, and an hyperactive dog who drives everyone crazy. Desperate, Harriet hires a middle-aged, Native American woman, Agatha, with no references, no address, and a past steeped in mystery. Stern but loving, Agatha forces each family member to work through their issues with honesty and dignity while hiding from her own grief. In the end, the story's memorable characters each learn how to pick up the threads of both love and self respect that will pull them out into the harsh world and then lead them back home.

This story is the first time that the relatively common, but severely under-diagnosed chromosomal disorder, Velo-Cardio-Facial Syndrome, has ever appeared in fiction. As typical of Dr. Cogan's previous novels, the clash of the Anglo and Native American cultures casts a different light on the issues facing many American families. The story of a career woman, caught in the sandwich generation, taking care of both her parent and her children, is one that will resonate with many readers, as will the story of a family overwhelmed with medical problems. It is the kind of page-turning novel which will tug on the reader's heart.