Judith Claire Mitchell is an English professor at UW-Madison, where she directs the MFA program in creative writing. In her free time, she gets to write amazing books like "A Reunion of Ghosts." This book focuses on the Alter Sisters, three mordantly witty, complex women, who love each other fiercely. Being an Alter isn't easy though, bad luck is in their genes, passed down through the generations. Yet no matter what curves life throws at these siblings - and it's hurled plenty - they always have a wisecrack, and one another. Unspooling threads of history, personal memory, and family lore, they weave a mesmerizing account of their lives that stretches back decades to their great-grandfather, a brilliant scientist whose professional triumph became the sinister legacy that defines them.