Almost Strangers

How two women seek and embrace freedom is at the heart of Delsa Winer's stunning first novel

"At fort, Ursula Korfield Gant believes she is independent of the usual pleasure people seek and connections they covet. She lives alone, although there are men who've had, for a while, resident status."

Thus begins Delsa Winer's engrossing novel, at once terrifying and full of hope. When her mother dies, the shattered Ursula retreats for distant shores, abandoning Daniel, her lover, and the safe boundaries of her life. Meanwhile, Daniel's wife, Cissy, is tormented by a different loss -- she knows of her husband's betrayal -- and she, too, leaves. Both women end up in the same plane crash, and each ventures into the world unknowable and unable to return to the past. The mystery of their fates is the force that drives this emotional journey through the many faces of female identity in all its beauty, chaos, and compassion.

At once ironic and moving, Almost Strangers is a love story, a suspense story, and a novel about starting over.

Delsa Winer has written short stories for The Virginia Quarterly Review, The Boston Globe Magazine, Working Mother, Tikkun, and other publications. The recipient of numerous literary distinctions, including the Capricorn Novel Award and a fellowship from the Massachussetts Council on the Arts, she lives in Lincoln, Massachussetts.