From the 1996 National Book Award-winning author of "Ship Fever and Other Stories". What begins as a classic boy-meets-girl tale in 1955 becomes something far different when marriage and two children do not bring a family closer together. "Lucid Stars" is the moving story of how one family learns to survive by becoming a planetary system that just happens to be missing its sun. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Delta Fiction's fine debut is marked by a quietly charming, seductive first novel whose author launches a career that promises to be as bright as the constellations that inform these pages. The dynamics of the modern broken home and the complex relationships engendered by divorce and remarriage are limned here with rare sensitivity and insight. The agile Barrett convincingly relates the story from the diverse perspectives of two mothers and two daughters. In her skilled hands, a 23-year time span is credible and the star motif never stales. Penny finds solace, self-affirmation and freedom in astronomy, and her strength and passion bolster her ex-husband Ben's second family, whom he eventually abandons for a third. Her daughter Cass, wounded and confused by her parents' divorce and her father's incapacity to love, knows that childhood is a cruel status: ``They're trapped in these small bodies, stuck in a land where the natives treat them as if they're deaf, blind, and crippled . . . . Her only refuge is that place inside her head where she retreats with her books and her projects.'' Although he links the other protagonists, the hypnotic Ben remains a deliberately vague character because he is a black hole``What goes into him goes in and is lost forever.'' Major ad/promo. Copyright 1988 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Depicting two decades in the life of a Cape Cod family and the relationships that arise from its dissolution, this first novel is a moving exploration of the nature of family. The story focuses on the women and children in the orbit of Ben Day, playboy skier turned real estate developer. Ben's need for the reassurance of younger women wrecks havoc with those around him. It first ends his marriage to Penny, the independent woman with a passion for astronomy he meets at a New Hampshire resort, and later to Diane, his pretty but vapid secretary. For those hurt by Ben, healing comes in an unusual forma loose-knit ``family'' composed of his ex-wives and children as well as various relatives and lovers, a family that provides a love and acceptance not found with the emotionally destructive Ben. An impressive debut. Lawrence Rungren, Bedford Free P.L., Mass.Copyright 1988 Cahners Business Information, Inc. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Andrea Barrett has had her short stories published in Northwast Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, Prairie Schooner, and other quarterlies. She lives with her husband in Rochester, New York. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Part 1 Penny
Orion, Mighty Hunter in the Sky (February 1955)	3
The Broad Wings of Virgo (May 1955)	21
Cassiopeia Spins (July 1959)	40
Fomalhaut (September 1963)	60
Part 2 Cass
The Region of Perpetual Occultation (August 1966)	83
By Gemini (April 1967)	105
Deep-Sky Objects (January 1968)	128
Algol, the Demon Star (November 1970)	145
Part 3 Diane
The Sea of Tranquillity (July 1971)	165
Zodiac Haze (December 1973)	183
The First Point of Libra (September 1974)	201
Black Holes and Heavenly Bodies (April 1976)	219
Part 4 Two Mothers, Two Daughters
The Lesser Light to Rule the Night (July 1976)	241
Gravity Extends from Pluto (September 1977)	263
Pegasus Transformed (October 1977)	284
Stars Whose Cause Is All Unknown (August 1978)	307

Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.