The sixteen linked stories in Mary Ann McGuigan's novel PIECES trace the effects of domestic abuse on a large Irish-American family from 1955 to 2008. McGuigan brings to life not only her primary protagonist, Moira Donnegan, but also Moira's parents, her six siblings, her nephews and nieces, and her husband and children. It is a daunting task to take on such a large cast of characters and multiple points of view and write without melodrama about such...