An Everyday Savior — Kathryn Larrabee

Harley Cookson is a good, kindhearted man living in rural New York state. Determined to keep his ailing mother out of a nursing home, he brings her into the house he shares with his new wife. A chance encounter with his high school sweetheart, Lynette, threatens to upset this tenuous domestic balance. Suspecting that Lynette is a victim of abuse, Harley becomes determined to protect her. But when Lynette's husband dies in an apparently freak accident, small-town suspicion is raised, and Harley must confront the possibility that his attempt to save her has put them both, and his marriage, in jeopardy. With this unadorned tale of a man struggling valiantly with a past that he can neither recapture nor fully escape, Kathryn Larrabee, winner of the distinguished Hopwood Award for creating writing, has created a moving debut novel.