Closer to Home

In this initial draft for a novel, the ordinary life of Sam Anderson is mapped out. At the age of twenty-seven, she has just moved back to North River, the small town in which she grew up, with a lover and his four-year-old daughter, both of whom are still relative strangers to her. Upon her return, she discovers that little else is familiar to her. The few old faces she finds--friends from high school--turn out to be as challenging as the new family relationships she is trying to establish. Sam isn't looking for challenge; she wants something quieter. But, it seems the more she tries to make home a safe and stable place, the more the people under her own roof work against her.