"<em>The Obituary Writer</em> is an engrossing book, drawing you in from page one. I admire this graceful and intimate writer for her literary sleight of hand: you don’t so much read about her characters as you inhabit them. Reading this book, I felt acutely the sadness of loss, the deliciousness of gossip among a group of women friends, the frustration of miscommunication in marriage, the joys of sensuality. Creating such empathy on the part of a reader isn’t easy: Ann Hood just makes it look that way. That’s a gift, and we readers are the lucky recipients."

- Elizabeth Berg author of The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted and Tapestry of Fortunes,

"In this poignant and incisive novel, Ann Hood brings history back to life in the most intimate way, chronicling the love affairs and heartbreaks of two very different women in two very different times. Moving gracefully and persuasively between post-earthquake San Francisco and the early 1960s, <em>The Obituary Writer</em> makes unexpected connections between these two bygone eras, and in the process, manages to illuminate the present as well as the past."

- Tom Perrotta, author of The Leftovers,