Maxine Carter suddenly finds herself searching for a fresh start-a way around her own gnawing fear of an untimely death and a wasted life.What she discovers is her neighbour`s nine-year-old son, Kyle. As Maxine becomes the boy`s constant companion and as Kyle deals with his parents` increasing absence and with life as an outsider in a new city,he slowly manages to reinvent Maxine`s real and imaginative life. Smart, funny, and poignant, Claire Wilkshire`s impressive debut is a novel about overcoming personal fears in a world wracked by private loss and public anxiety, and about finding friendship in the most unlikely places.