Something Unpredictable A Novel

How do we become the people we dream -- and dare -- to be?Delilah is thirty-one years old and needs a plan. Still living with her parents in Key West with no career to speak of, and in a dull relationship with a self-involved artist, Delilah fears that the good life is passing her by. Her sister lives behind a perfect picket fence, her father makes mountains of money off the market, and her mother spends it on the latest social cause. Delilah would love to save the world as well...if only she knew how. She longs for inspiration. Little does she know that it will soon come in the shape of Carla: a former tiger tamer and Delilah's biological grandmother who's been long lost -- until now.When Delilah's mother unwittingly discovers the identity of the woman who put her up for adoption years ago, Delilah is enlisted to visit Carla at her dilapidated farmhouse in rural New York. What begins as an obligatory and thorny relationship between Delilah and Carla blossoms into something that can only be described as love -- a mutual desire for family connection, a shared appreciation for the beauty of the land, and a commitment to embracing life by accepting its uncertainty.Because love [is] always unpredictable. And slightly out of control.

Barbara Chepaitis is the author of the acclaimed novels Feeding Christine and These Dreams. She earned her doctorate in composition and teaches at a university in upstate New York, where she makes her home.