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TEN THINGS I’VELEARNT ABOUT LOVE Butler, SarahPenguin Press (320 pp.)$26.95 | Jul. 15, 2013978-1-59420-533-0This soulful debut unpacks a familyenigma involving a wandering daughter, ahomeless father and their tenuous familyties.The title might promise anotherlight romantic romp about a footloose young woman inher late20s. However, English newcomer Butler has greatergravitas inmind. The top 10 lists strewn throughout point toincreasinglysomber subjects: a mother’s early death, infidelity, afather’sdeath from cancer, and elder sisters who are bothfervent andambivalent in their affection for their much youngersibling,protagonist Alice. Summoned home from Mongolia to thebedsideof Malcolm, her dying father, Alice is also forced torevisitLondon, the site of a traumatic rupture with herIndian lover,Kal, whose family wants to arrange a marriage for him.AfterMalcolm’s passing, sisters Tilly and Cee hint at whatAlice hassuspected since her mother’s death when she was 4years old:She is viewed as an interloper in the only family shehas everknown. Meanwhile, in alternating sections, Daniel, ahomelessman, scours London for the daughter he fathered duringa longagoaffair but has never met. Daniel’s plight stems bothfromthe disastrous legacy of his gambler father and froman autoaccident that bankrupted him. All he knows is that thewomanhe is searching for might have red hair, like hermother, and isnamed Alice. Delicately, through the accretion oftelling details,the reader learns that Daniel’s Alice and our heroineare one andthe same, but Alice thinks her father has just died.When, whilehelping another destitute man reconnect with his lostchild,Daniel happens across Malcolm’s obituary, completewith relatives’names and the location of memorial services, herealizeshis quest may soon be fulfilled if he has the courageto gamble.Improbably but convincingly, his initial diffidentovertures toAlice take the form of mini art installations. Sparelanguage andan atmosphere of foreboding will keep readers ontenterhooks.Whimsy and pathos, artfully melded.|