After discovering her husband’s affair and receiving an unexpected cancer diagnosis, a middle-aged woman travels west for a college friend’s wedding. There, she reconnects with her first love, setting in motion a journey that surfaces an old grief and compels her to choose between the life she has built, the past that may no longer exist, and the possibility of building a future rooted entirely in herself.

Why This Book Now?

As contemporary literary fiction increasingly turns its attention to midlife, particularly women navigating reinvention and the unraveling of long-held narratives, HELEN OF BOSTON speaks to readers drawn to stories that reflect the complexity of life beyond youth. The novel examines how an unexpected diagnosis can expose the fault lines of a life long assumed to be settled. By centering a forty-nine-year-old woman at a crossroads, HELEN OF BOSTON treats midlife not as an ending but as an active, volatile chapter, one in which the stakes remain urgent and the possibility of transformation remains very much alive.

HELEN OF BOSTON was developed over nine months in the highly regarded Novel Generator program at the GrubStreet Center for Creative Writing in Boston, where it underwent sustained drafting and revision in a workshop environment. I hold a BA and MA in English literature and writing and have spent more than twenty years working in digital marketing and content creation, first in the software industry and later in higher education, crafting stories designed to engage and inspire. I now lead marketing and communications for New England’s largest homeless day shelter in Boston, work that continually brings me into contact with lives shaped by disruption, courage, and the question of what it means to start over.