Back Home Again

The story begins in a hotel or motel, where the narrator, a twenty-something only child, has had a disturbing dream involving his or her mother. The novel, introduced by this scene and ending with what follows it, consists otherwise in a long analepsis narrating the memories disquieting the narrator’s sleep, events which started at the age of eleven or thirteen. The setting is New York in the early 21^st century, or a fictional city, seemingly later that century, that resembles New York, and the narrator’s and his or her mother’s place in it is among wealthy people, though they are not themselves wealthy. The father is at least initially absent, and the mother will be in jeopardy, or even die, caught in an incident that kills others and is in the news. The narrator, nearly isolated, will find a new friend and accomplice of the same age, a child who is intrepid and assertive whereas the narrator is cautious and curious. Another friend will be a middle-aged man, an eccentric hobbyist with a vintage wardrobe, who will kindly take in the narrator. An object having great sentimental value, even a kind of supernatural power, will unbeknownst to the narrator be stolen by the friend and used for a major plot purpose, and the discovery of its absence will be one of the late twists.