What does it mean to be the big heart? Or to hope to be the big heart? Or to fail to be that big heart? How far can a heart stretch? How does being a par­ent stretch it fur­ther? How does a heart man­age under the pres­sure of chil­dren, of self, of hos­pi­tal tech­ni­cian, of part­ner, of death? In this col­lec­tion, big heart­ed­ness is both demand and desire. It emerges from fam­i­ly life — the kid who says to your face that she prefers her oth­er par­ent; the father mon­key­ing around in the art gallery; the moth­er who ​“gets on with it” in silence; the hus­band, dis­tant and inti­mate under the mar­riage yoke. There is also in this col­lec­tion the stir­ring of wilder desires than fam­i­ly is sup­posed to nur­ture, feel­ings more fierce­ly self-assertive than a par­ent — a moth­er par­tic­u­lar­ly — is sup­posed to admit. This col­lec­tion asks how to rise to the occa­sions that fam­i­ly presents and also how to let one­self spill over the bounds of famil­ial roles.