Upon turning eighteen, Esther the Black looks for a chance to escape from her hated and dying grandmother, Esther the White, a cold matriarch who lives in seclusion on Long Island, where each summer her son, Philip, tries to kill himself by walking into the ocean. Reprint. Amazon.com description: Product Description: The matriarch of a Long Island clan with a stubbornly suicidal son and a defiant, restless granddaughter, Esther has hired a Russian landscaper to watch over the family as well as the grounds of their secluded waterfront estate. But he has been watching Esther, too. And his love for her is growing wild enough to uproot them all. The author of Here on Earth and The River King presents a stunning and hypnotic" novel that "interweaves past and present with piercing images and unfailing energy" (Publishers Weekly)"