First published 2013
A daughter travels to presidential landmarks after her father dies, seeking something she cannot name among the monuments to power. A young man instructs students in proper manners at an etiquette academy while his girlfriend stands trial for stealing money. A widow advertises herself as a rental grandchild, accompanying lonely elderly women on vacations and pretending to care. A couple agrees to shelter a mail order bride for the husband's Russian mother, turning their home into a waystation for someone else's arranged future. These characters move through worlds of privilege and expectation, where money and status create their own rules. Each person stands at a moment of choice, caught between what they have inherited and what they might become. The stories reveal how entitlement shapes lives in ways both obvious and hidden.
Genres: short-stories, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: United States
Period: 21st-century
305 pages · Kindle Edition · St. Martin's Press