A Sack of Teeth

Six-year-old Jack Klein’s first day of school is also a day of radical changes: Jack’s mother Lorraine learns that her husband, Ray, is having an affair, and that her secret love, Antoine Gaudin, the 65-year-old boarder in the basement, has committed suicide, leaving behind a suitcase full of money and a sack of gold teeth. Lorraine’s decision about what to do about the money, the gold teeth, and Ray’s infidelity will forever change her life and her family. This briskly paced, black-comic tale moves seamlessly between the distinct but overlapping worlds of a confused child, a mother immersed in 1960s youth culture, and a father who worships the fading Rat Pack and the indulgences it represents.