"Taylor is master of the perfect phrase that sums up the deep insights of bereavement she seeks to convey. She has the gift of breathing life into her characters so that we are witness to all their frailties and their grace. We observe Teresa's growing sense of self as she puts the fractured pieces of herself back together with the gold of her acceptance like the Japanese art of Kintsugi. Life-affirming. Beautiful". - Geraldine Mills, Author of Bone Road, Hellkite and others

"Like the impact the life of a parent has, the impact of a child's death is unending. Teresa Calvano, protagonist of Lisa C. Taylor's deeply moving novel, The Shape of What Remains, discovers that a parent's grief has no outline, no edges, that it seeps into every aspect of life, every relationship, every encounter. In the aftermath of her daughter's loss, Teresa finds herself questioning everything she knows, her previous understanding of things, her memories, her marriage, her sense of herself. This is a novel that engages a reader head and heart as it chronicles ongoingness, which is change, and courage which turns out to be surrender. Taylor is a poet and brings a poet's precision to this examination of a woman's heart, a mother's resilience. I haven't been so moved by a novel in years." - Richard Hoffman author of Half the House and Love & Fury

"What separates Lisa C. Taylor's smart, powerful The Shape of What Remains from the plethora of novels about the death of a child is the marvelous voice of its narrator Tess. At times profound and deeply reflective regarding the hit-and-run death of her six-year-old daughter right before Tess's very eyes, her voice can also be charmingly witty and bitingly acerbic. In the space of a page she can have you cringing with pain but then laughing uncomfortably at some ironic observation about her situation. Even in the depths of her grief and despair, Tess remains undaunted. Replete with the messy, fecundity of life, the novel strikes that perfect balance between sympathy for Tess and cheering for her to move on. We learn the painful, reassuring lesson that what remains is that life has a funny way of winning out in the end." - Michael C. White, Author of Resting Place, Soul Catcher, and A Brother's Blood

"The loss of a child is a parent's worst nightmare and ten years after the hit-and-run death of six-year-old Serena, her mother has not moved on. Teresa is frozen in grief, her marriage a sham, and her work-life moribund. In The Shape of What Remains, Lisa C. Taylor offers the reader an emotionally satisfying story against the background of a poet's lyrical observations, the heartbreak music of Janis Joplin, and the complications of an imperfect family. Teresa's journey to rebuild her life is emotionally challenging material; Taylor evokes empathy without sentimentality, character screw-ups without judgment. Highly recommended." - Ellen Meeropol, author of The Lost Women of Azalea Court, Kinship of Clover, and others

"In this bold and compassionate novel, Lisa C. Taylor takes us into the dark heart of a mother's worst nightmare: losing her child in an accident for which she feels partly responsible. This searing narrative is sparked by wry wit and unexpected twists-including infidelity, family deception, and Janis Joplin ballads. In lucid prose, Taylor vividly depicts one woman finding the strength to shape the life that remains for her after tragedy." - Elizabeth Searle, author of A Four-Sided Bed & others and screenwriter of I'll Show You Mine