The Death Bed — Daniel Adams

The Manchells had striven for years to preserve the facade of a normal middle class suburban family, but when the threads that had bound them together begin to unravel the members find themselves at odds with each other and themselves. As each of them finds their own mold and becomes increasingly set in it, Julia Manchell searches for an answer that can pull the increasingly polarized family back together. Looking to the family's dying patriarch for support she must navigate the various pitfalls of hedonism, pragmatism, and nihilism that her loved ones fall into, while trying to preserve the childlike innocence of her younger brother throughout the ordeal. She soon finds that before she can accomplish her purpose she must first come to grips with the lingering guilt from her own hidden past.

The Death Bed is the story of a family that drifts apart and collides violently back together again, as they find that they are still bound to one another through their sufferings and shared disasters. It delves deep into the human psyche and examines the eternal search for meaning that unifies all of mankind.