by Amy Hempel
First published 1998
A woman sits in a psychiatric halfway house, composing a letter to a man she encountered just once. She fills pages with stories about her fellow patients and their daily routines. Each small story connects to the next, building a portrait of life among people whose minds work differently. Her observations reveal the strange logic that governs her world and the relationships she forms with others who live on the margins. As she continues writing, her own history emerges through these fragments. The letter becomes more than communication. It becomes her way of making sense of how she arrived at this place and why she feels compelled to reach out to someone who barely knows her. Her urgent need to connect drives every word.
Genres: literary-fiction, psychology, mental-illness, contemporary
Vibes: atmospheric, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, unreliable-narrator
160 pages · Paperback · Scribner
Content warnings: mental-illness