Smith’s Pulitzer Prize-winning poetry collection Life on Mars constituted an eloquent and moving elegy for her father. In her first memoir, the poet and Princeton creative writing professor fleshes out the rest of her family, focusing on her late mother, whose deep Christian faith inspired her daughter, who later found an equivalent wellspring of strength in writing. Describing a loving, close-knit family—her “heaven”—Smith evokes the milestones of growing up and eventually outgrowing Fairview, California.
