pThree thousand ancestors ask how I straddle the sea, a foot on either shore, Anastasia Vassos writes. One answer is this lovely book, which begins and ends in Greece, the home of both her ancestors and the mythological and literary figures she references throughout. Woven through the geographical fabric is a loose chronological thread connecting a midwestern childhood, a lasting love relationship, and the aging of parents. Let me be a book before it's written, Vassos writes. Here is the book, written, with its vivid imagery, its attention to sound and form, its words lined up . . . behind the heart. - strongMartha Collinsstrongem emp