Closer All the Time — Jim Nichols

The inhabitants of Baxter, Maine, are going nowhere fast -- but not for lack of trying. In this deftly written jewel of a novel, award-winning author Jim Nichols strings together the bittersweet stories of people bound together by shared geography and the insular nature of small-town life. There's Johnny Lunden, a well-meaning war veteran with a penchant for the local bar and a deep, but doomed love for his family; eight-year-old Ted Soule, who shares a first kiss with the Ophelia-like Nadia, the daughter of his Russian neighbors; and Tomi Lambert who watches the confused adults around her struggle to accept their fates. With the coastal waters of Maine serving as a backdrop, Nichols artfully explores the nature of connection -- hoped for, missed, lost, and found.