In Sister, Mother, Husband, Dog, Delia Ephron brings her trademark wit and effervescent prose to a series of unforgettable, moving, and provocative essays. The emotional linchpin in this collection is the author’s stirring, eloquent response to the death of Nora Ephron—Delia’s older sister and frequent writing companion. In “Sister,” Ephron deftly captures the love, rivalry, respect, and intimacy that made up her relationship with her sister in a way that is at once deeply personal and comfortingly universal.

Other essays in this collection run the gamut from a hysterical piece about love and the movies—how one romantic comedy completely destroyed her twenties, to the joy of girl friends and best friendship, the magical madness and miracle of dogs, keen-eyed observations about urban survival, and a serious and affecting memoir of life with her mother—growing up the child of alcoholics. Ephron’s sparkling wit and humanity is present on every emotionally resonant page of Sister, Mother, Husband, Dog.