When the World Was Steady Lib/E

Life isn't all Emmy and Virginia Simpson anticipated. When Emmy's marriage to an Australian man ends, she flees her home in Sydney to find herself on the island of Bali--only to become embroiled with a crew of international misfits and smugglers. Her prim and pious sister, Virginia, meanwhile, has never wandered far outside of London. Struggling to find meaning, she follows her aging mother's advice to vacation on the Isle of Skye. On these two islands halfway around the world, the middle-aged sisters confront the costs of self-knowledge and their destinies with unexpected consequences.

Claire Messud is an award-winning novelist and a professor in the Department of English at Harvard University. Her books include The Emperor's Children, The Woman Upstairs, and The Last Life.