<p> In the summer of 1976, during their annual retreat on Cape Cod, the McKotch family came apart. Now, twenty years after daughter Gwen was diagnosed with Turner's syndrome&#8212;a rare genetic condition that keeps her trapped forever in the body of a child&#8212;eminent scientist Frank McKotch is divorced from his pedigreed wife, Paulette. Eldest son Billy, a successful cardiologist, lives a life built on secrets and compromise. His brother Scott awakened from a pot-addled adolescence to a soul-killing job and a regrettable marriage. And Gwen&#8212;bright and accomplished but hermetic and emotionally aloof&#8212;spurns all social interaction until, well into her thirties, she falls in love for the first time. With compassion and almost painful astuteness, <i>The Condition</i> explores the power of family mythologies&#8212;the self-delusions, denials, and inescapable truths that forever bind fathers and mothers and siblings. </p>