Things We Need

Weezy and Will Coffey raised their children, Martha, Claire and Max, to be kind, bright and independent. They gave them help with their homework, holidays at a beach house, a family dog and homemade birthday cakes. It's true that Martha's a little too sensitive - she calls Claire several times a week to discuss natural disasters and local crime. And Claire has a short fuse with her sister - she becomes irate when Martha suggests they attend couples therapy. And Max, the baby in his final year at college, is a little too happy-go-lucky, though not quite as lucky as everyone had hoped. Still, their parents did their best to prepare them for the world. So why is Martha living in her childhood bedroom after a career crisis? And why has Claire cancelled her wedding and locked herself in her New York apartment with mounting debts? And how has Max managed to get himself into a girlfriend fiasco?

A story about the ways in which we never really grow up, Things We Need is compassionate, wise, laced with piquant wit, and a perfectly-drawn portrait of family life.