In this debut novel, J.M. Kearns probes the attachments that can either tear us apart or make us whole—attachments to nightmarish day jobs, to family members who don’t always understand us, to childhood places that we can’t return to—and to the lover right in front of us that we resist truly knowing.

Dave Moore, 41, is doing just great at all the things he never wanted to do, like living in L.A. and slaving at a giant law firm while his creative dream nears its expiration date. That’s when he falls hard for co-worker Maggie Taylor, a witty goddess with a psyche as uncertain as his own.

Perhaps foolishly, he takes her to the beloved summer lake of his Canadian youth, where he hopes to summon the mythic past. But Maggie has other things on her mind—such as the present. Beset by chamberpots and uptight relatives, will she refuse to join him in his quest?

Love has a way of raising the stakes. As the story returns to L.A., issues mount for Dave with his day job and his ailing father, while Maggie’s life also goes into crisis mode. They must decide on their future. Will he rise to the occasion? Will she?

This brilliant, darkly comic story starts off breezy and romantic, but goes to deeper and ultimately more luminous places.