When Annabelle Gurwitch was a child, surrounded by a cast of epically dysfunctional relatives, she secretly prayed that it was all a terrible mistake. Suffering from a colossal case of "family envy," Gurwitch began seeking out other forms of community. If she's learned anything, it's that no matter how hard you try to escape a crazy family, you just end up in another crazy family.

Using her own clan of hucksters and scam artists as inspiration, Wherever You Go, There They Are unpacks and redefines our ideas of community and belonging. In her essays, Gurwitch explores family mythologies, the fragility of sisterhood, the rituals and rites of passage into urban tribes, the seductive charm of a cult, and the spectacularly daunting search for the community where her aging parents will spend the last chapter of their lives.

With a wry wit and healthy dose of irresistible self-deprecation, Gurwitch asks: Who and what makes a family in our modern society? Is it our blood relations, the people we work with, pray with, our pets? By turns hilarious and deeply moving, Wherever You Go, There They Are is an irreverent, laugh-out-loud examination of family--both those that we join unwittingly and those we join on purpose.