Excerpt from Amity & Sorrow by Peggy Riley, plus links to reviews, author biography & more

The man takes a step toward her, hands out. "Sorry."

"No," Mother says. "Praise the Lord." A small cry escapes Sorrow.

"Jesus!" the man spits out and he goes into his house with the squeal of the screen and the hard door slamming. Mother stands, holding his blankets and shaking, until Amity takes them and makes a nest of them, there on the porch for her sister. Then Mother slumps down onto the steps.

Amity settles Sorrow down and lies beside her, to pray. She whispers, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you." She waits for her sister to say the next line of it, but her sister only turns away from her, to hold herself in her own arms, as if she knows what Amity has done to her.

Excerpted from Amity & Sorrow by Peggy Riley. Copyright © 2013 by Peggy Riley. Excerpted by permission of Little Brown & Company. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.