"Those who expect a feel-good novel to come from all this will be
disappointed. But they will be captured by very good writing and
wonderful portraits of Fay and Dickie. . . . A very fine novel about a
mother's love and a son's survival."

--Kirkus Reviews

"At once tender, cruel, sensitive, and raw, What We Give, What We Take is a searing novel in which wounded people make hard decisions in order to survive."

--Foreword Reviews

"What We Give, What We Take is
the indelible portrait of a mother and son eking out lives on the
periphery, first together, then apart. With a tenderness for life's
misfits that recalls Carson McCullers, Randi Triant, in this remarkable
novel, hauntingly evokes Fay's and Dickie's complexities, and those of
the men and women who exploit, brutalize, nurture, and adore them."
--Claire Messud, author of the national bestselling novels, The Woman Upstairs and The Emperor's Children

"A
haunting novel about people driven by longings beyond the boundaries of
everyday life. Randi Triant tells a story that shimmers with surprises
and insights about a world that's tilted towards unconventional answers
to universal questions about love and desire. Her characters' problems
are revealed with pain and humor that deliver transformations we cannot
reject but that we feel are our very own. Rapid and unblinking, it's
unforgettable."
--Maria Flook, author of New York Times bestseller Invisible Eden