"The women in When the Messenger Is Hot are fierce and kind, damaged and optimistic. They are recovering from loss or addiction or betrayal, or they are on the fringes of reality or sanity or a "conventional" life. They are jilted lovers, absent daughters, Twelve-Steppers, and smart-asses. Imagined with tenderness and unflinching honesty, they experience love and loss in a way that is both uniquely theirs and universal.". "From the woman who decides to live on the patio rooftop of her friend's apartment building, to the bestselling memoir writer who finds her identity overtaken by the actress cast in the movie adaptation, to the daughter convinced her dead mother is in fact simply stuck at a North Dakota bus depot, the characters herein confront and defy the onslaught of crises, emotions, and passions that seem to arise at every turn."--BOOK JACKET.