Three Children:

Toppel has a sparse, almost Hemingwayesque style set to an appealingly fractured rhythm. Each of the three children of the title, Clarissa, Cora, and Michael, take turns narrating this moody tale of family secrets, conflicts, and tolerance. The Lyons, she English and Catholic, he American and Jewish, live in Puerto Rico where his family has established the island's first chain of supermarkets. The family basks in luxury during the  boom of the 1960s and then moves expeditiously to New York when the demand for statehood turns militant.  They divide their time between Manhattan and Bat Island, an idyllic retreat for a few fortunate people and countless bats. The main events of their lives are conveyed in a shorthand of odd moments, realizations, and confrontations. The fragility of their parents' marriage underlies many disagreements, as does Cora's frequent ill health and the truth about Clarissa's birth. Toppel leads us to New York rooftops, into guano-rich bat caves, and inside the minds of her three narrators with conviction and finesse.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         – D. Seaman, BOOKLIST