Ana Turns: A Novel

"It's midnight on Ana Koehl's sixtieth birthday, and she is taking stock. Nine years have passed since she last had sex with her kind-hearted but pot-addicted husband, seven since she began an affair with a magnetic gonzo journalist. She's gratified by her work as a book doula, yes, but equally burdened by the compulsion to be on-call for her clients 24/7. And life seems determined to keep her on her toes: her elderly mother's birthday greeting is an inflation-adjusted calculation of the cost of raising her, her absentee, world-renowned architect father has recently passed, her brother has hijacked his will, and her child is changing rapidly before her very eyes. Gazing out at the dark moat of Central Park from behind her desk, Ana realizes she can no longer postpone making peace with her past or confronting her present. A kaleidoscopic story narrated by Ana and the key figures in her life-her husband, her brother, her lover's wife, to name a few-Ana Turns unspools over the twenty-four hours of her birthday, culminating in a watershed dinner party, with her family members' true colors on full display. By day's end, the bounds of her own collaboration and forgiveness illuminated, Ana turns towards a vision of what she wants next in this blink of a life"--