Luke Winterborne has written a masterful tale about families and their inevitable struggles to love one another. Julian, a gay teacher in Santa Monica, California, with a loving extended family, is unexpectedly swept into a tragic event from which he emerges battered, distressed, and alienated from his family. Amaranth Bower is a novel about the redemptive power of family and love; it is a novel about the tricks of fortune that leave us forever changed, and forever contemplating the significance of our actions.