Beverly Jensen, author of the bittersweet and witty "The Sisters From Hardscrabble Bay," died in 2003 at the age of 49. Thanks to the efforts of her husband, Jay Silverman, Viking has published her book posthumously.

In the opening chapter, "Gone," we read an affecting account of a farm wife's death in childbirth in 1916 in a remote area of New Brunswick in Canada. Della and Avis, ages 7 and 6, are surprised but not worried when one evening their mother bolts from the dinner table and leaks a noisy gush of water onto the kitchen floor. They are shooed upstairs for the night and awaken to a thin cry of a baby floating up to the second floor. As they creep downstairs, Mrs. Doncaster, a neighbor who has helped with the delivery of the baby, presses a cautioning finger to her lips and says, "Your mother is very tired. It come easy, but it still takes a lot out of a body."

The local doctor, undertaker and husband to the dead woman are credibly presented, but it is to the pair of little sisters that the chapter belongs. In its closing sentence we witness Della watching her mother's ragtag funeral procession from a farmhouse window. Avis, displaying an early independence of spirit, chases after the mourners and clutches in her hand a bouquet of mayflowers. They are for her mother.

The novel's setting changes with each chapter -- from New Brunswick to Maine to Boston, following the sisters. One chapter was included in "The Best American Short Stories 2007," an honor well deserved.