<strong>"A graceful, attentive, and beautiful debut." -- George Saunders</strong> <p/><strong>For fans of Meg Wolitzer and Maggie Shipstead: a sweeping debut novel following an American artist who returns to Germany--where she fell in love and had a child decades earlier--to confront her past at her former mother-in-law's funeral</strong> <p/> It's 1971 when Louise leaves Oregon for Düsseldorf, a city grappling with its nation's horrific recent history, to study art. Soon she's embroiled in a scene dramatically different from the one at home, thanks in large part to Dieter, a mercurial musician. Their romance ignites quickly, but life gets in the way: an unplanned pregnancy, hasty marriage, the tense balance of their creative ambitions, and--finally, fatally--a family secret that shatters Dieter, and drives Louise home. <p/> But in 2008 she's headed to Dieter's mother's funeral. She never returned to Germany, and has since remarried, had another daughter, and built a life in Oregon. As she flies into the heart of her past, she reckons with the choices she made, and the ones she didn't, just as her family--current and former--must consider how Louise's life has shaped their own, for better and for worse. <p/> Exquisitely balanced, expansive yet wonderfully intimate, <em>Lifelines</em> explores the indelible ties of family; the shape art, history, and nationality give to our lives; and the ways in which we are forever evolving, with each step we take, with each turn of the Earth. <br>