Douglas Hobbie

Elizabeth Ash is on the run from her foundering marriage. With her sidekick, Lynn, she has fled to England for a month, where the cool air is a tonic and adventure may be at hand. Seeking solitude, Elizabeth's husband, Henry, has holed up in her sister's Vermont summerhouse to begin writing the book he hopes will transform his life. But, Henry is more alone and less isolated than he bargained for: A year earlier his brother-in-law, Fitz, dropped...

In The Day, Hobbie continues his exploration of family life and the unending confilct between passion and comfort. It is Thanksgiving, 1991. Fletcher, an architect adrift in the prevailing economic downturn, is the relative outsider at his wife's family gathering. His sense of dislocation is the somewhat distorting lens through which we view the novel's events. Fletcher is haunted by memories of the person at the center of the book, Clare, his sister-in-law...