First published 2025
A family takes their boat out for what should be a simple day on the water. Instead, old resentments surface and threaten to capsize more than just their vessel. Nearby, a married man weighs his most valuable possession against a chance encounter with an attractive stranger. A wealthy furniture dealer returns to the poor town where he grew up, bringing his filmmaker daughter to witness the ruins of his past. A physician confronts the consequences of an old affair when it resurfaces with devastating news. These men inhabit the margins of American life, moving through roadside diners and forgotten establishments that progress left behind. They chase dreams of returning to simpler times, to the natural places of their youth, while the world transforms around them. Each story captures the gap between what these characters want from life and what reality delivers.
Genres: short-stories, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional-atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: character-study, slice-of-life
Setting: America
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
192 pages · Hardcover · Knopf