Love is complicated, and Chris Pannell has captured the sharp pain and deep affection of a son for his parents as they age and slip away from him. In lines that are clear, honest and specific, he unpacks the family histories that bind him to his past. From corgis to seafaring uncles to Christmas trees, he charts the path of his parents’ descent, with the heartbreaking question of his mother ringing in our ears, asking him, and all of us, “Christopher, are you going to take me home?”

Along with love and loss, this is a book about our own aging. Our own, inevitable, death. Pannell writes of seeing close friends die unexpectedly, watching elderly couples as they travel together. He considers wheelchairs, walkers, lost memories and rests for a few moments in the contemplation of great art. Pannell details it all unsparingly, but with a great humanity. The ocean is crossed and recrossed, the LPs are sorted and disposed of, and in the end the stars hold his fear.