Cathleen Schine: Fin and Lady

Cathleen Schine says that she – and her writing – survive by seeing the humor in her life. In her most recent novel,

Fin & Lady (Sarah Crichton Books), a melancholic, inquisitive boy is moved into Greenwhich Village by his free-spirited (if careless) older half-sister in the early 60s. Schine talks about the book's stirring mixture of lightness and depth, and the push-and-pull these incongruous siblings enact as they separately search for personal freedom and familial security.