Thank you, thank you to Margaret Quamme and the Columbus Dispatch, where my little old book is named best of 2015 along with work by Shirley Jackson, Mary Gaitskill, Michael Cunningham, and my former student Lauren Groff.

A Reunion of Ghosts (Harper) by Judith Claire Mitchell: Three middle-aged sisters prepare a joint suicide note that explains the sins of their family for the past four generations. Mitchell’s plot is thoroughly satisfying, but the tone of her novel — the ability to savor joy and sorrow at the same time — makes it remarkable. — M.Q.