Arthur was five years old when his mother, Clarisse, revealed a great secret to him: she would soon embark on a long journey to the planet Uranus. There, as Clarisse explained, she would live on that icy planet with twenty-seven moons, inhabited by seashells with blue hues that ate icy arctic parsley, trees with jingling bells hanging from their branches, and many other wondrous creatures. Many years later, as Arthur awaits the birth of his first daughter, he finds himself reminiscing about his mother and that fantastical tale. He learns that the magical universe his mother described was a mother's trick to explain to her son an impending, eternal separation—a wonderful lie that allowed the child to dream and imagine, instead of facing reality, if only for a while. Melissa Da Costa returns with a sweet and touching story, proving once again with her deft writing that nothing is more powerful than love to heal deep wounds, and that the ability to invent stories is the most extraordinary tool for confronting the pain of reality.