First published 2025
Rocky lives in Western Massachusetts with her husband Nick, their college graduate daughter Willa who has moved back home, and her widowed father Mort who has also moved in. Their son Jamie has started a new job in New York. The household feels ridiculously normal until Rocky becomes fixated on a nearby accident that barely touches their lives. She also worries about a medical condition that might threaten her family's stability. Rocky remains anxious, nostalgic, and funny as she navigates the complicated dynamics of multiple generations under one roof. Her obsessions reveal deeper anxieties about the things she cannot control. The story examines how families create their own unspoken rules and how love does not always align with who people actually are versus who we need them to be. Rocky must confront the weight of uncertainty while managing the messy reality of family life.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, contemporary, family-drama
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, slice-of-life
Setting: Massachusetts, New York, Western Massachusetts
215 pages · Hardcover · Harper